Khairul Azwan Harun

For Senator Azwan, it matters little what side the youth choose to support. What matters more is the right form of politics, one that is less focused on character attacking and more on substantive factual debate. In this, Senator Azwan has been aggressively vocal in criticizing the opposition for its emotional and sensationalism type politics. In the opposition's Alternative Budget 2018, Senator Azwan spent weeks debunking the promises that the opposition proposed, from the fallacy of its proposition to eradicate all road tolls to eliminating GST. In this sense, Senator Azwan is known to present tough economic ideas in words that the common man would understand.

Azwan has been a stern critic of Mahathir Mohamed for his new role as Malaysia's opposition leader. Tun Dr Mahathir, a former Prime Minister of Malaysia for 22 years and now aged 93, became opposition leader in January 2018. For Senator Azwan, this appointment is detrimental to the progress of youth leaders. He has expressed concern that a man of the past would not comprehend issues such as cyber security, jobs security, climate change and modern religious extremism. As noted by Senator Azwan, having a credible opposition helps keep the government on its toes.

Since 23 October 2013, he has been the Deputy Leader of UMNO Youth Wing and a member of UMNO Supreme Council chaired by the Party President. He won the post in the national party election with Khairy Jamaluddin who won the post of National Leader of UMNO Youth Wing. Prior to this, Senator Azwan was the Leader of Barisan Nasional Perak Youth (the youth organisation of Malaysia's governing coalition), and the Head of the Perak State UMNO Youth Wing. At UMNO's grassroots level, he held the post of Youth Chief in the Pasir Salak Division.

In sports, Azwan was the Deputy President of Perak Football Association and was Perak State Super League Team Manager from 2011 until 2013.

Azwan had also served as Chief of Staff at Perak Chief Minister's Office in 2009 until January 2010. After having served YBUDR as its founding CEO, Khairul Azwan has built his own corporate flagship namely Great Colour Group and continues to grow his group's business interest in energy, marine engineering, pharmaceutical and ICT.

Azwan had his tertiary education at the International Islamic University Matriculation Kuala Lumpur, and his university education at Cardiff University of Wales in the United Kingdom and Open University Malaysia in the Kuala Lumpur. While at Cardiff, he graduated with a Bachelor degree in Accounting in 1999. In 2007 he completed his Master degree in Management at Open University Malaysia. Senator Azwan also successfully completed Leaders in Development Executive Course from Harvard Kennedy School, USA in 2014.

After leaving university, Senator Azwan started his career in 1999 with Ernst & Young, Chartered Accountants at Kuala Lumpur Office and held senior positions in Business Assurance and Corporate Recovery divisions. He was involved in E&Y corporate advisory assignments at several public listed companies and GLC.

Azwan started his career in 1999 with Ernst & Young, Chartered Accountants at Kuala Lumpur Office and held senior positions in Business Assurance and Corporate Recovery divisions. He was involved in E&Y corporate advisory assignments at several public listed companies and GLCs. He joined Perak State Government in 2004 and was appointed as CEO of Yayasan Bina Upaya Darul Ridzuan (YBUDR), a state charity foundation in 2010 until 2011. He is also an adjunct Lecturer of Management and Leadership at PETRONAS University of Technology.

Khairul Azwan bin Harun (Jawi: خيرالازوان بن هارون; born 19 October 1976) is a Malaysian politician. He is currently a Malaysian Senator who is the member of Dewan Negara. Dewan Negara is the House of Senate, upper house in the Parliament of Malaysia. He is a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a major party in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. Azwan is one of the individuals mentioned during the press conference by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on 8 January 2020 with regards to audio recordings of telephone conversations relating to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.