Mercedes-Benz Malaysia (MBM) has announced the appointment of Sagree Sardien as its new president and CEO. She replaces Claus Weidner, who has been in the post since 2015. Sardien, who assumed the role on June 1, has also been appointed as head of region, Mercedes-Benz Cars South-East Asia II.
Sardien has over 20 years of automotive experience, 13 of which have been with Daimler. She started her association with the brand as head of operations in South Africa for Daimler’s Fleet Management division. During her tenure, she held various leadership positions across the Daimler organisations in South Africa, in fleet operations, logistics, sales, product management and customer services.
She was also responsible for the implementation of the Retail of the Future business model in the South African market. In 2018, Sardien moved to Stuttgart, Germany, where she was the head of sales for Region Overseas markets, comprising Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa.
“I am excited to join the Malaysia and SEA II regional team. In the last few years, Mercedes-Benz has grown from strength to strength in the premium automotive segment in the region. It is an incredible and opportune time to join the company, and I look forward to contributing to the implementation of our ambition to shape the future of mobility and support the transformation of the automotive environment,” she said.
The company also announced the appointment of Edmin Naidoo as vice-president of customer services MBC Malaysia and SEA II, effective July 1. Naidoo, who replaces Jeffrey Simon in the role, has been with the Mercedes-Benz brand for over 25 years, with experience in the customer service retail and wholesale business.
Prior to taking on the current role here in Malaysia, he served as the director, customer services at Mercedes-Benz Australia Pacific following a 15-year stint at Mercedes-Benz South Africa. In collaboration with the customer service team of Region Overseas, Naidoo was responsible for introducing best practice steering tools, digital KPI dashboards and customer services chat-bot for retailers, advancing the standards of digital transformation in the region.
“We are entering an exciting time where innovation including data at the core allows us to create hyper-personalized ecosystems, where our customers can experience true Mercedes moments that are best-in-class. I am excited to join the SEA team to build upon our achievements in shaping the future of service products that offer our customers a Mercedes of Service Experience,” he said.
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Malaysia is Mercedes Benz biggest market in South East Asia. They need to ensure they dont risk losing that lead. Hope these two new appointments will lead to better pricing, warranties and service for Mercedes Benz cars in Malaysia.
If pricing, warranties, and service had never been a factor for them not being top, why should they change anything? For the most part, they need to widen their offerings to tackle the gaps filled in by BMW & Audi.
You’re the only guy in this comment section who seems to understand how a business works.
Please solve the expensive maintenance cost. Charge more reasonable rate.
If cannot resolve this issue, better dont take up this role. Good luck
Customer relationships are crucial, please listen to your customers as this is not the 1st time we are raising issues on maintenance and service costs.
Seems like only the poor dudes are commenting here.
Those datuks and datins are not complaining of 11k aircond repairs here. if anything, they are just filtering out the unworthy, the truly rich don’t normally comment here… unfortunately i’m not in that pool…hence this comment…sigh…