Martijn Rene van Keulen

KUALA LUMPUR (July 1): Heineken Malaysia Bhd (KL:HEIM) has appointed Martijn Rene van Keulen as new managing director (MD), effective Monday.

Van Kuelen, 48, was nominated by the brewery’s board on April 25 to succeed Roland Bala, 58, currently MD at Multi Bintang Indonesia — an Indonesia-based brewer that is also part of the Heineken group, according to its filing.

Van Kuelen joined Heineken International in 2000 and has held various commercial positions. He was recently MD of Heineken Myanmar after nearly four years since taking the position in July 2020.

In Myanmar, Van Kuelen has “led his team to drive an ambitious transformation agenda and successfully delivered strong performance despite extremely challenging times facing the company”, it noted.

His past experiences also include account director at Heineken Netherlands (2010-2015), general manager at Heineken Kirin Japan (2015-2018) and MD at Grande Brasserie de Nouvelle-Caledonie, a beer and non-alcoholic drinks producer and distributor in New Caledonia.

Shares of Heineken Malaysia finished up 16 sen or 0.73% to RM22.20 on Monday, valuing the group at RM6.71 billion.