Keysight Technologies head receives accolade at Malaysia Management Excellence Awards

Dato’ Gooi Soon Chai’s leadership allowed the company to thrive and build resilience amidst tremendous uncertainties.

Dato' Gooi Soon Chai, Senior Vice President and President of Order Fulfillment and Digital Software Solutions at Keysight Technologies, was named Executive of the Year - Technology at the recently held Malaysia Management Excellence Awards for his pivotal role in steering the company through strategic inflection points such as supply chain disruption, pivoting to new technology, and nurturing future talent.

Dato’ Gooi has been with Keysight and its predecessor companies, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Agilent, for 35 years and has held multiple leadership positions in different businesses such as manufacturing, procurement, information technology, and business management. His extensive international experience and business knowledge are highly valued for strategic decisions and directions, including strategic planning, business acquisitions, and organisational redesigns. 

Dato’ Gooi is a visionary and driven leader, highly valued for his excellent leadership, integrity, and insights. He has a well-established record of leading the organisation’s strategies and efforts to maximise strengths in the supply chain, technology centres, and engineering operations, as well as advancing digital transformation through Keysight’s intelligent software test solutions, digital platforms, and application services. He is also an inspiring leader, passionate about nurturing talent, building the E&E ecosystem, and enabling the company’s growth.

Under his leadership, Keysight saw a successful digitalisation of its supply chain operations for scalability, fast, and increased efficiency. This includes the implementation of Industry 4.0, smart procurement for real-time part visibility and supplier integration, and network optimisation to help navigate global logistics congestion. It has enabled Keysight to continue serving its customers and helping them achieve breakthroughs that change lives, secure the world, and connect people across the globe.    

The COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions caused disruptions in the global supply chain. And Keysight, a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, is not immune to the global supply chain crisis. Under Dato’ Gooi’s strong leadership, Keysight navigated through these global macroeconomic challenges. Dato’ Gooi and his team’s quick actions to increase resilience and agility have ensured business continuity during these unprecedented pressures on the global supply chain. This includes re-engineering and redesigning thousands of parts for supply assurance.

During the pandemic, Gooi also stepped up to safeguard the livelihoods of local communities, including the establishment of a vaccination centre on Keysight’s premises, enabling employees, along with 53 other companies across Penang’s industry ecosystem, to receive full vaccinations. 

Meanwhile, he also believes in nurturing talent by engaging and igniting a spark of interest in them even at an early age. He spearheads the proliferation of science and technology in the community and shaped the idea of the Penang Science Cafe and Penang Digital Library which continuously reach out and spark interest in STEM amongst students of different age groups. 

Under his stewardship, the company became a benchmark of excellence in this region, with a commitment to doing business in an ethical, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible manner.

The prestigious awards programme honours Malaysia's most outstanding leaders, innovators, and teams whose initiatives have brought tangible business results for the success of their respective companies. It also highlights employee engagement and COVID management activities that made beneficial impacts on the workforce or customers.

The Malaysia Management Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's employee engagements and management initiatives, please contact Danica Avila at [email protected]