Malaysian IT vet Harres Tan gets award from regional body Asocio

• Former Pikom chairman and MDeC board member recognised for regional contribution
• Company he founded in 1989 now present in seven countries, with international list of clients

THE Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation (Asocio) has recognised Malaysian entrepreneur Harres Tan (pic) for his 30 years of outstanding contribution to the growth of ICT (information and communications technology) in the region.
 
The award was presented by Asocio chairman Abdullah H. Kafi at a ceremony in Bangkok last month celebrating the regional association’s 30th anniversary. Asocio consists of the national ICT associations from 27 economies in the region.
 
Tan founded HT Consulting Group in 1989 and simultaneously established its offices in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Today, the group has direct presence in more than seven countries, with an international list of clients.
 
In 2004, the group renamed all its overseas subsidiaries to Rototype International, which focuses mainly on delivering self-service and mobile payment solutions to the banking and finance industry.
 
Tan has more than 38 years’ experience in the areas of system architecture, concept design of specialised hardware and system integration for the banking and healthcare industry. He is currently based out of Rototype’s New York office.
 
He began his ICT career as an IBM mainframe systems programmer at UK-based Racal Electronics in 1973 before joining the Computer Systems Advisor (CSA) Group in 1978. He then joined Unidata where he worked for nine years, leaving in 1989 to found HT Consulting.
 
Tan has served a term of two years as director of the World IT Services Alliance or Witsa until 2000, then as Asocio president for a term until 2002.
 
He was also on the board of directors at Malaysia’s national ICT custodian Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) for six years until 2011, and was a former chairman of the National ICT Association of Malaysia (Pikom), where he remains an advisor. Prior to that, he also served in a similar capacity at the Malaysian National Computer Confederation (MNCC).

 
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