Dr. Ruslan Abdullah

Dr. Ruslan Abdullah is currently the Director of Science, Environment, and Sustainability at the Malaysian Palm Oil Council. He has been actively involved in the oil palm industry for almost 38 years.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the Malaysian Agricultural University (UPM) in 1984. He then pursued and obtained his PhD in 1988 from the University of Nottingham, England with a world breakthrough in the field of Cellular Biotechnology that was published in Nature Biotechnology, New Scientist, Science and highlighted in the New York Times.

Dr. Ruslan started his career as a researcher at Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad and later moved on to teach at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) as an Associate Professor from 1994 to 2005. Together with his team of post-graduate students, Dr. Ruslan charted a few other worlds’ first in the field of gene manipulation and plant genetic engineering.

In 2006, Dr. Ruslan left UKM to re-join his former employer, Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad as its Director of Research & Development. Following the merger of the Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad, Golden Hope Berhad, and Sime Darby Berhad in 2008, Dr. Ruslan was appointed as a Senior Vice President at the new Sime Darby Plantation Berhad. He was also made the Head of Plantation Research and Head of Minamas Research Centre, the R&D arm of Sime Darby in Indonesia. Among other responsibilities, his main task was to improve productivity, optimise crop recovery, and minimise losses.

Dr. Ruslan joined Malaysian Palm Oil Association as its Director, Sustainability, and Research & Development in 2014. Later in 2017, he joined the Malaysian Palm Oil Council as its Director of Science, Environment, and Sustainability.