Brian Blood, Chief Executive is pleased to announce the expansion of the CAPA team. Effective 1 June, Rachel Chee and will join CAPA as an Executive Director (ED), Rachel’s experience is described below. Johnny Yong will join CAPA as Executive Director (ED) on 1 July, his experience is described below as well.

The EDs will be based in the Kuala Lumpur office alongside the existing team of:

• Mei Leng – Manager, Governance and Operations
• Imm Ai – Manager, Events and Communications

Rachel Chee – Executive Director 

For the last 11 years Rachel has fulfilled a number of senior roles at ACCA based in Kuala Lumpur. This has included ASEAN and Asia Pacific education leadership roles, as well as managing capacity building projects. Her work spanned Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Mekong region. Rachel collaborated widely with learning institutions, policy makers, and development partners to establish high-quality training and development programs. Her involvement extended to the ASEAN Federation of Accountants, where she actively participated in discussions and provided support for the development needs of AFA members in complying with IFAC’s SMOs.

Prior to ACCA, Rachel served as a Technical Director at the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) and was deeply involved in establishing audit and ethics standard-setting boards within the Institute. She collaborated closely with regulators, standard setters, government agencies, academia, and accountants. She was also a Technical Advisor to members on IFAC’s Developing Nations and Small-and-Medium Practices (SMPC) committees. Rachel joined MIA after 10 years at an international accounting firm when she was a Senior Manager, Assurance.

Johnny Yong – Executive Director 

Most recently the Head, Capital Market & Assurance at the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA), developing guidelines, standards, and technical guidance materials, Johnny has a long history within the profession. After 8 years with an international accounting firm, Johnny then spent 11 years at MIA being their first Head for a newly established Practice Review department. The majority of his time was as a Public Practice Manager, which brought him into contact with IFAC, in a Technical Advisor role at the SMPC.

Following a 2-year period at an accountancy training organisation, Johnny seized an opportunity to work at IFAC in New York for 5 years until 2021.

As a Technical Manager, amongst other responsibilities, he managed IFAC’s SMPC (now the SMP Advisory Group) contributing to the development of international auditing and assurance standards and the code of ethics for professional accountants.