MaGIC CEO Ashran Ghazi announces resignation, will be joining Dattel

CEO Ashrah Ghazi to make a special announcement at MagIC Media Engagement event.

The Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) CEO Ashran Ghazi has just announced that he is resigning from the organisation.

He said his last day will be on Dec 12, adding that he is joining a regional consumer intelligence company based in Malaysia, Dattel, as the CEO.

As to a successor, Ashran said “there is no visibility on that”.

MaGIC’s executive director, finance & corporate services, Amiruddin Abdul Shukor, will be the interim CEO.

“I have been delaying the resignation for quite some time, and only tendered resignation when MaGIC was safe in the hands of another ministry,” said Ashran. He tendered his resignation last month.

The Cyberjaya-based MaGIC with a work force of around 70 people was originally under the Ministry of Finance but it has been moved under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development.

And it will now get its funding from this ministry, he said, adding that it will get about the same amount as in the past years.

Since its inception, MaGIC has received about RM50mil in funding yearly – in the last four years, it has been allocated nearly RM197mil.

He said the ministry is looking at MaGIC to drive the innovation and startup segments.

In a previous interview, Ashran said though the agency doesn’t generate revenue it contributes to the economy by growing startups through its accelerator programmes.

The first batch of startups from GAP (Global Accelerator Programme) raised US$11.03mil (RM46.28mil) and had a valuation of US$275.78mil (RM1.16bil).