User:Mmzain

Mohd Zain Mohamed (aka Mohamed Zain)

Zain grew up in a small village called Kampung Demit near Kubang Kerian, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia. He comes from a rather large family with 9 siblings. He has two sons, two daughters, one step-daughter, and five grand-children from two marriages. In his early days, he was raised by his grandmother’s sister, Wan Siti Wan Chik, because his father, a school teacher, periodically had to move to various places in Kelantan where he was assigned to teach. Zain received his primary education at Islah English School until 1964, before moving on to SMR Kota Bharu to continue his education at the lower secondary level. In 1968, he continued his education at the upper secondary level at the Sultan Ismail College, Kota Bharu. After high school he continued his studies at the Mara Institute of Technology in Petaling Jaya where he majored in Planting Industry and Management from 1970 to 1973. Upon receiving his diploma in 1973, he managed to secure a job as a Research Assistant with the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI). After a few months at the the job he decided to change his career to be a planter and started to apply for the position in various major plantation companies in Malaysia. After noticing that some his colleagues at MARDI were leaving the organization to pursue their higher education overseas he also decided to apply for a place at the University of California (UCD), Davis. The luck was on his side when on the same date in 1974 he received a job offer as a Planting Assistant from Kumpulan Guthrie (KGSB) as well as a place to pursue his BS (Agric Science & Management) degree at UCD. Because the temptation to further his studies in California was too good to let go, he decided to apply for a scholarship from the Malaysian government as well as from MARA. After securing the scholarship from the government, he turned down the new job offer from KGSB and left for California in September, 1974. After receiving his BS degree from UCD, he decided to move to the east of the USA and enrolled in West Virginia University in Morgantown in September 1977. While pursuing his graduate studies, he married an American woman in February 1979. After receiving s MS (Agricultural Economics) and MBA from WVU, he returned to Malaysia in the summer of 1979.

After four months of returning to Kuala Lumpur, Zain joined Arthur Andersen & Co (AA&C)’s Management Information Consulting Division as Computer Consultant. While at AA&C he attended a 6-week training program at the company’s training school in St. Charles, near Chicago, USA. His first posting after returning from the training program was in Singapore where his was assigned to work with a number of international clients including Monsanto Singapore