Heba Eltarifi Starts Tenure As Managing Director Of Scania Southeast Asia

Heba Eltarifi has started her tenure as the new Managing Director of Scania Southeast Asia. Based in Malaysia, she succeeds Marie Sjödin Enström who enjoyed a 5 1/2 year stint here. Heba’s tenure also coincides with Scania Malaysia’s celebration of its “First 50 Years” anniversary which commemorates all its ‘firsts’ in the country for the last half century.

“I will continue Scania’s leadership in driving the shift towards a sustainable transport system in the region and also in Malaysia. All of this by continuously putting our customers’ profitability and sustainability in the centre of our concern,” said Heba. “I am also honoured to be in Malaysia at such a momentous time. I have no doubt that Scania and our customers have built a great foundation in the first 50 years for us to continue to leap forward into the next 50 and beyond.”

Heba holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, Diploma of FEM Executive Management Program from Stockholm School of Economics and is a Certified Practising Accountant. She has experience in building high-performing teams and driving a culture of achievement in her previous role as Chief Financial Officer at Scania Australia. She is also experienced in strategic business planning and execution, internal and external stakeholder management, operational management, and business and process transformation.

Responsible for the Finance, IT Procurement departments in Australia, as well as for commercial operations such as Used Truck Sales and Truck Rentals, Heba gained wide ranging experiences within the trucking business over the past two decades.

Scania Southeast Asia is a business unit with its head office in Malaysia. It supports the Malaysia and Singapore markets with dedicated captive sales and services centres. For the Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines, Brunei and Cambodia markets, the support is channelled through Scania’s authorised private dealers.

Scania started its presence in Malaysia in 1971 with the arrival of the Scania LB110 truck at Port Klang for delivery to Kontena Nasional. In 1994, the first locally assembled Scania truck, and the first low-floor city bus were delivered. Then in 2006, it delivered its first PGR-series truck, with the first B-Double, Malaysia’s longest truck, arriving in 2012.

In 2013, Scania Credit Malaysia was established to provide the financial solutions. The following year saw the introduction of Scania Assistance, the first 24/7 roadside assistance service, and Fleet Management Systems. In 2017, Scania received recognition for all its efforts by winning the Sustainable Urban Transport Award. While in 2018, it saw a record year of vehicle sales, the signing of the first Scania Ecolution customer, and the first school to be spearheaded by “Master Sustainability by Scania”. A year later, it delivered the first International Truck of the Year i.e. the New Truck Generation, while in 2020, it delivered its first Scania XT truck in Sarawak.

Recently, Scania Malaysia also announced that its Ecolution partnership customers yielded a significant CO2 reduction, equivalent to planting 10,000 trees flourishing for the past one year.

“Scania will continue to support the logistics, construction and public service sectors, commuting people and goods every day throughout the region and in this country. We will continue to help our customers achieve the best profitability while reaching their sustainability goals,” said Heba. “The timing cannot be any more challenging than the economic impact that our customers are facing throughout the region due to the pandemic. I am confident that my team and I will continue to pull through and come out stronger than ever for them.”