Lessons on Financial Leadership in the Public Service Industry

Strong financial leadership today goes beyond numbers, balancing sustainability, resilience, and public value, believes Zaleha Abdul Hamid, a seasoned financial strategist with over 25 years of cross industries experience.

In conversation with Global Woman Leader Magazine, Zaleha shares how long-term thinking, governance, and data-driven decisions are shaping sustainable water infrastructure and financial strategies. She also highlights the importance of building internal capabilities and fostering a culture aligned with sustainability goals.

A Chartered Accountant and Fellow of ACCA, Zaleha is known for her expertise in capital market funding, and finance transformation. Passionate about women’s empowerment, she actively champions initiatives that foster inclusive leadership and long-term organisational impact.

To learn more about Zaleha’s insights and leadership journey, read the full article below.

Q. How do you see the role of a CFO evolving in sustainable water services industry today, where financial discipline must balance public good, long-term resilience, and environmental responsibility?

A. In the public service industry, CFO should pivot from short-term to long-term outcomes as the industry deals with long useful lives assets, and the returns on the investments on these assets could only be achieved with a long-term perspective, as well as it is critical investments to the public. The water services industry is no different.

As the CFO of PAAB, it becomes imperative to ensure the funding raised are from a sustainable funding model that balances the affordability of the water operators for repayments of the water infrastructures capital expenditures that are constructed by us, and the water security to the public.

Over recent years, we made available funding to assist in the reduction of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) levels to eligible water operators, and also established a program where vendors/suppliers/contractors are able to mitigate challenges to manage working capital for construction of projects by tapping into our Vendor Financing Program, it was first launched at the end of 2025 as part of public-private partnership collaboration with financial institutions. In March 2026, we have completed the development of our Sustainable Islamic Finance Framework with platinum sustainable finance rating assigned by a rating agency in Malaysia.

Both long-term public services delivery and resilience are considered, whilst embedding sustainability into fund raising, and integrating Key Performance Indicators (KPI) metric on sustainability material matters into financial decision making, as well as cultivating a sustainability driven culture at project and corporate level.

Q. As sustainability and financial stewardship intersect in utilities, what were the first difficult trade-offs you had to navigate as a CFO, and how did those early choices shape the organisation’s transformation journey?

A. One of the first difficult trade-offs is the investment to upskill our internal talents on sustainability subject matters with limited budgets that we could used for construction of water infrastructures. Nurturing awareness and building knowledge in sustainability to create sustainability driven culture, as well as forming a sustainability team with governance committees and establishing frameworks and roadmaps. In 2023 and 2024, we trained almost all our employees on sustainability matters from the basic knowledge to advance understanding of international standards/guidelines, through various sessions with internal and external trainers. In 2025, we finalised the corporate Sustainability Framework and roadmaps.

In turn, incorporating clearer accountability at operational and corporate levels, that enables implementation of sustainability agenda throughout the organisation.

These early choices helped shift the organisation to sustainability‑aligned resources management, and have eased our transformation journey. Now, we have restructured the evaluation of project eligibility to include sustainability considerations for utilisation of proceeds raised under our new Sustainable Islamic Finance Framework.

Q. How did governance committees, and ERP systems help you influence non-finance leaders to think differently about sustainability and performance?     

A. One of the critical success factors with the implementation is advocating the benefits of sustainability agenda, for finance and non-finance leaders alike. Establishing governance committees facilitated the forward-looking agenda. We set up the Sustainability Committee as the sub-committee of the Board of Directors to provide, among others, the strategic directions, and Sustainability Working Committee to ensure robust implementation of our corporate Sustainability Framework through open dialogue, transparent decision-making process, rigorous evaluations, in a structured platform. Hence, collective responsibility and collaboration can be achieved.

Our ERP system, which is integrated with peripheral supporting systems, provides visibility of project progress and cost incurred, procurement spending, asset data and operational KPI results. We are in the process of integrating Environment Social Governance (ESG)-related data into operational dashboards, for monitoring the progress to achieve targets set for the annual KPIs as well as our roadmap. This will shift focus from assumption/intuition to proven data driven evidence to assist leaders to make better decisions for long-term sustainability.

Q. From a woman leader’s perspective, how have you navigated credibility, authority, and collaboration across sectors such as utilities, oil & gas, and infrastructure finance?

A. As a women leader, navigating credibility and authority is always a challenge, but we can focus to strive through competency, consistency, authenticity, and basically show up in critical moments. Leading with an understanding of the financial data with operational insight beyond the numbers, reframing financial discussion into operational language, mediating between competing priorities while aligning everyone to a shared purpose, as well as translating complex financial issues into actionable outcomes. The calmness in crisis and quiet authority rooted in clarity of expectations and fair, transparent decision-making, built the trust and respect. Being able to bring diverse teams together creates solution that are stronger and more sustainable.

As a woman, our strengths in emotional intelligence such as empathy, listening, and connecting often make us differentiators, rather than barriers. Gender may shape the journey, but it never limits the impact.

Finance Leadership in Focus: Five Strategic Takeaways

1. Take the Long-Term View
Future-ready CFOs balance financial discipline with public value, resilience, and sustainable investment.

2. Build Capability Before Change
Transformation succeeds when organizations invest early in talent, sustainability knowledge, and governance.

3. Embed Sustainability into Finance
Integrate ESG into funding, capital allocation, project evaluation, and performance metrics—not as an add-on, but as a core financial strategy.

4. Let Data Drive Better Decisions
Strong governance and integrated digital systems enable transparent, evidence-based decision-making and greater organizational accountability.

5. Influence Through Trust and Collaboration
The most effective finance leaders combine financial expertise with operational insight, translating complex issues into strategic action while building trust across diverse stakeholders.

 

LAST WORD: Advice for aspiring women finance leaders seeking to drive transformation in sustainability-focused industries and create long-term organisational impact.

My advice circles around four important areas.

Firstly, building knowledge and understanding of cross-functional roles and responsibilities. This makes you a better strategic thinker and partner among leaders in the organisation.

Secondly, leading with clarity, courage and values. Being authentic creates trust and respect. During transformation, there will be various situations faced without precedent reference, and you will need to anchor on courage and values.

Thirdly, bring emotional intelligence into leadership. Advocacy and influence on change often excel with fostered collaborations and emotional intelligence.

Fourthly, invest in your own voice and visibility. Don’t be shy about taking up the space in meeting rooms where decision-making is deliberated. Of course, this advice may be applied by any aspiring women to become the future women leader.