Congratulations to our special pioneer member.
Her write up as finalist for WOMEN EXCELLENCE award gets special
nominee.
MS SHARIFAH MARIA ALFAH, A PROFILE
Managing Director of Usulinc Sdn Bhd and Owner of Foxhill Langkawi Kampung & Homestay Wellness Resort.
Sharifah Maria Alfah is presently Managing Director of Usulinc Sdn. Bhd., managing Foxhill Langkawi Kampung & Homestay Wellness Resort. Prior to embarking on a career change and relocating to Langkawi, Maria was a Senior Management Consultant & Executive Coach bringing with her over 30 years of People Management experience. Her last corporate assignment in Kuala Lumpur was as Trainer/Facilitator for IBM Leadership Program. With legal background and a Masters in Management from Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Manila, she started her career in early 1980s in the field of Human Resource Management & Development (then known as Personnel Management).
She was amongst the veteran HR practitioners who shaped the HR community in Malaysia and was one of the contributors for early growth of the Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management (MIHRM). She is now a Fellow of the Institute. Her contributions to the development of HR management covers a span of organizations, as Head of HR Divisions, including Hewlett Packard & Seagate Technology (Electronics), Bank Negara Malaysia (Banking) ,ING (then Aetna Universal, – Insurance) and Ranhill Bhd ( Oil & Gas & Constructions). As strategic and management consultant, she had helped organizations like Takaful& Kurnia (Insurance), Golden Hope (Palm Oil ). As Executive Coach internally and as a Consultant, her aim was to guide her clients in personal life/career strategic planning and self -behavioral modification and improvement. These will cause changes and result in renewed commitments and contributions for the organizations.
After a wake-up call through breast cancer, she made the decision in late 2008 to have a career and life change, to find a more peaceful environment, yet contributing to the Nation’s growth and the enhancement of people relationship. Her experiences are her strength and through some research and strategic planning, she decided to join the growing Tourism and Hospitality Industry. She found a niche that was somehow underdeveloped, that is to provide international guests with a unique experience of the Malaysian culture, understanding of the Malaysian heritage and to touch them with Malaysian warmth and true hospitality.
Purchasing Foxhill from a Dutch couple mid-2009, Maria was able to embark on a second entrepreneurial path in Tourism & Hospitality. She received early recognition of achievement from TripAdvisor. Through guests’ written feedbacks, Foxhill was awarded the Certificate of Excellence for the Year 2012 and 2013. The testimonies became true “free” advertisements that open the door to international bookings and Maria’s measure of personal success is the creation of life long global relationships and returning guests.
Following the dual paths, she continues to provide some counseling, coaching and training (facilitation) when opportunities arose.
Thankful to be where she is, Maria continues to support and befriend other cancer patients and “thrivers” through the KanWork organization, and the handicapped through LICOF (Langkawi Inclusive Community Outreach Foundation) to help them be thriving members society.
“If we think negative thoughts and poverty, we become a magnet that attracts poverty. If we deliberately think of abundance, we will attract abundance and when we think positive, happy thoughts, we attract like-minded, positive, happy people into our lives” – Law of Attraction.
