SIR RICHARD NEEDHAM DROPS IN AT MONT KIARA FOR A COURTESY VISIT
Posted on 5th July 2018
We were very honoured and pleased to receive an old friend, Sir Richard Needham as our guest in our office on 2 July 2018. In 2002 when the British company Dyson was looking to transfer its production to Malaysia, Sir Richard, an ardent supporter of Malaysia and then Deputy Chairman of Dyson, approached Raslan Loong to help Dyson set up a Malaysian subsidiary that later began producing their world famous vacuum cleaners in Johor, a strategy that turned the fortunes of the company around.
Sir Richard was in Kuala Lumpur leading a small team of lawyers from the British dispute resolution firm of Zaiwalla & Co. The team met for about an hour with Managing Partner Loong Caesar discussing the prospect of expanding their dispute resolution practice in Malaysian particularly disputes facilitated by the Asian International Arbitration Centre. The rest of the British team consisted of Ms. Pavani Reddy and Mr. Leigh Crestohl. They later met with Datuk Sundra Rajoo who is the Director of the AIAC.
Sir Richard served under Margaret Thatcher as Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland between 1985 and 1992 and under John Major as Minister of State for Trade between 1992 and 1995. As the longest serving British government Northern Ireland Minister, he was instrumental in transforming Northern Ireland’s economic base and the UK’s export strategy under Michael Heseltine.