Abbas is Group Chief Executive Officer and President of PETRONAS, a Malaysian oil and gas company owned by the government of Malaysia. He’s been making waves lately over the government’s growing reliance on PETRONAS to fund pet projects and plug fiscal deficits. Abbas joined the company in 1975 as an Executive Trainee and subsequently advanced through the ranks, holding various managerial positions until 1991, when he was appointed Executive Assistant to the President. After running the company's Corporate Planning and Development division in the middle 1990s, he was placed in charge of several business units, including Petrochemical, Oil, and Exploration and Production. Abbas was promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer of subsidiary MISC Berhad (formerly Malaysia International Shipping Corporation Berhad) in 2004 and six years later, in February 2010, became President and CEO of the entire company.