Malaysia's Corporate Network: Interlocking Board Memberships

This is a follow-up to the previous post on Malaysia's corporate network. Using the same data set we can also observe the extent to which individuals feature on boards of different listed companies in the corporate network. The map below shows such a network. The bigger the node the greater the number of boards an individual sits on. As of 2015, the most connected person was listed in 54 companies (out of over 900 listed companies). On the other hand, the greatest number of individuals sitting on the board of any one company was 15. So who is this most connected person? According to the Malaysia Business Advisory, each registered company is required to appoint at least one Company Secretary - an individual licensed by the Malaysia Companies Secretaries Association. As such, the most connected people tend to be Company Secretaries. Their roles vary but they are primarily responsible for advising companies and ensuring that they comply with the Companies Act of 1965. A more interesting map (still being built) however is one of interlocking memberships excluding Company Secretaries since these individuals would generally likely have greater say on strategic direction and company activities than Corporate Secretaries.

Interlocking Board Memberships in Malaysia's Corporate Network 2015
Created Using Gephi 0.9.1

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