With over twenty years of extensive experience in human capital management, Syed Mohammad Muhafiz is an established expert currently serving as the Head of Human Capital Investment at PETRONAS since July 2021. In this role, he leads the development and execution of PETRONAS’s human capital investment strategy, focusing on building a robust talent pipeline that starts from school until tertiary education. He works with key industry players, national and state government agencies, and educational institutions both locally and abroad, fostering partnerships and driving collaboration across the value chain. His efforts ensure a continuous and sustainable supply of qualified talent to meet the future workforce needs of PETRONAS and the broader energy sector.

Throughout his 18-year tenure at PETRONAS, Muhafiz has held several critical leadership roles, overseeing human capital transformation, strategic workforce planning, and talent management. When he was Head of People Strategy and Planning for the Upstream Business, he played a pivotal role in implementing leadership development programs for high-potential talents in the upstream sector. He also led long-term workforce planning efforts and supported the establishment of PETRONAS’s upstream presence in several South American countries. Additionally, he spearheaded the design and execution of a comprehensive talent exit strategy for upstream operations.

He has also developed and implemented diversity, inclusion, and employment equity strategies aligned with South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment agenda when he was based in South Africa with Engen Petroleum. There, he led an HR transformation project, redesigning processes and deploying a new human capital management platform across Engen’s operations in seven African countries.

Muhafiz holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Business Administration (Finance) from De Montfort University in the UK. His extensive leadership training at PETRONAS and strategic Global HR Leaders programme with established business school in UK, combined with his broad professional experience, equips him with a multifaceted strategic perspective.

In addition to leading the Human Capital Investment department, Muhafiz has served as a Director at PETROSAINS Sdn Bhd and the Institute of Technology Petroleum PETRONAS (INSTEP) since 2021. Both are wholly owned subsidiaries of PETRONAS, focusing on providing innovative STEM education to children and delivering training solutions to nurture future-ready technical talent.