Karangkraf's founder and co-founder bid farewell; to give way to the younger generations

SHAH ALAM - After four decades of spearheading the company; the founder of Karangkraf Media Group, Datuk Hussamuddin Yaacub, will resign as Group Chairman and Publisher this November.

In a statement issued today, the company also highlighted that Deputy Group Chairman Datuk Muhammad Nasir Haji Hamzah will also be resigning this November 1 as well.

Following their resignation, the duo will, from then on act as the company’s Advisor and Co-Advisor; respectively.

They will also relinquish their positions in the Board and the company will appoint five new Board Members to succeed them.

The five are: Firdaus Hussamuddin, Akmal Eirfan Mohamed Fauzi, Farah Hussamuddin, Azizi Fikry and Izzat Izhar Muhammad Nasir.

The void left by Hussamuddin will be filled in by Firdaus Hussamuddin who will be succeeding him as Group Chairman. Previously, Firdaus was the Chief Executive Officer for Grup Buku Karangkraf Sdn Bhd.

“For the past four decades, Karangkraf has been growing strongly. The company has managed to brave and survive the digital disruption wave that had hit the world since 2013 which turmoiled much of the print media industry,” said Datuk Hussamuddin in the statement.

“Now, I think it is timely for us to take a back seat and hand over the baton to the younger generations so that they can take the company to even greater heights,” he added.

In light of the handover, Karangkraf also announced several structural changes which will also be effective on November 1, 2022.

On the Group level, Akmal Eirfan will be appointed as Group Executive Director of Corporate, Finance and Risk Management. He was previously the Chief Executive Officer for Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd.

As for the Karangkraf’s three main business divisions, the changes are as follows:

Farah Hussamuddin will be appointed as the Executive Director/CEO/Publisher of the Group’s Media Division which includes the company’s news outfits, Sinar Harian and Sinar Daily. She was previously the Chief Executive Officer of Sinar Karangkraf Sdn Bhd.

Azizi Fikry will be appointed as the Executive Director/CEO of the Printing and Manufacturing Division, which includes Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd and Karangkraf Medicare Sdn Bhd. He was previously the Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd.

Firdaus Hussamuddin will also be appointed as the Executive Director/CEO/Publisher of the Group’s Book and Al-Quran Publishing Division, which includes Karya Bestari, Grup Buku Karangkraf and its subsidiaries. She will be assisted by Izzat Izhar who will be appointed as the division’s Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer.

Karangkraf has its humble beginning back in 1978, as a small publishing business in a shop lot, printing its first publication, Mingguan Kanak Kanak.

Today, the company has grown into one of the country’s publishing, printing, and media giant.