About Us
HERONS ACADEMY™
A startup by the youth, for the youth
We provide self-development activities for the youth throughout the year ranging from academic, sports, hobbies, arts and upskilling training.
We want to ensure regardless of background, our youth will have access to quality after-school programs.
Herons Academy — inspiring a positive youth development.
Grow with Herons together.
Our values guide your mentorship success with us
Access
Equal opportunities in educational programs and activities regardless of gender, race, including extracurricular activities and sports.
Quality
Focus on constant improvement of our programs standards to ensure only the best for our members.
Unity
Promotes shared values and experiences by encouraging members to embrace diversity.
Equity
Personal or social circumstances such as gender, ethnic origin or family background, are not obstacles to achieving their biggest potential.
Efficiency
Maximising members performance while maintaining the best investment value with our programs.
Our Ohsem Team
Nabil Norzaidi
FOUNDER
The founder of Herons Academy, Nabil is a self – proclaimed introvert and a father of ten cats. Inspired by an article he read on Facebook, he came up with an idea of a place where school kids can spend their after – school hours, productively.
Graduated with Bachelor of Economics, Politics and International Studies from University of Warwick, the best description of the UK he managed to come up with is “feels like KL but colder”.
Despite having multiple accolades, he proudly says his greatest personal achievement is uploading videos of himself singing the 90s Malay songs on social media.
He believes that the youth needs to be well-equipped and adaptable to the uncertain future, and that is how Herons Academy comes in clutch.
“The future is never certain. What we can do is work on the now. Work on ourselves. Be as agile and adaptable as possible and we are good to go.”
Syamil Faisal
CO-FOUNDER
Syamil, the co-founder is best described as a polymath. He is the guy you should go to if you are having a life crisis, or if you simply need a helping hand on picking up girls.
Known for his perseverance, he endured Architecture at Oxford Brookes University for 3 years, and graduated in the summer of 2019.
A guy that sees the world differently, Syamil found his passion in entrepreneurship through writing — a skillset that he learned from reading one too many philosophical books.A huge fan of indie music, he spends his free time writing and singing cheesy, romantic songs.
Syamil believes that bad body odour comes from eating too much fish, something that he is guilty of. He has this belief that the youth needs to understand the vast potential they have and that they need the right guidance to build a more progressive society.
“You shape 85% of your personality during your youth. I believe that we can build a better generation by holistically moulding the children of today — mental, physical, emotion, and spiritual.”
Amin Sazuki
CO-FOUNDER
Amin, one of the founders of Herons Academy is known for his baby face and his absolute hatred for any edible marine creatures from the sea.
Graduated from University of Malaya majoring in Pure Mathematics, he enjoys doing outdoor activities and driving mindlessly in the wee hours of the morning.
He is known as the man who can’t sit still, and self-diagnosed himself with ADHD. He claims that his life greatest achievement so far is completing his maths degree, something that he used to have nightmares about every night for 4 years.
Eager to try everything that life has to offer, he believes that everyone should have an equal opportunity to do so, regardless of their backgrounds.
“Most of young people today have an overwhelming desire to be liked, loved, accepted and to belong. I often wonder whether they love themselves and believe in themselves. It is our job to love them and believe in them. I think young people speak a lot of sense if they are given the chance to talk, and if they are listened to.”
Our Board of Mentors
Seniwati Fauziah Datuk Ahmad Daud
More affectionately known to Malaysians as Ogy Ahmad Daud, she has been in the industry since the 70s and her pace hasn’t withered since then.
Fauziah, who was born in Singapore, is the daughter of the legendary singer Datuk Ahmad Daud and legendary actress Datin Saadiah Baharom.
With 46 years of experience in the Performing Arts industry under her belt, she has won multiple awards and accolades — Most Promising Actress (1980), Best Actress at the Malaysia Film Festival (1985, 1987, 2016) and Best Actress at the Anugerah Skrin 2016, to name a few. Throughout the years, she has made a name for herself – a name that will never be forgotten.
Ogy has a unique approach in unlocking one’s inner strength and true potential, that is, by adapting and incorporating screenplays and acting techniques in daily life.
Azizah Ahmad
Azizah Ahmad, or better known as Memi among her young peers, is an optimistic and customer oriented advisor specialising in infrastructure set up, strategic planning & implementation, and risk management.
She kick-started her career with Sime Darby Group in 1993 and later joined the New Straits Times Group to set up a new business unit, where she gained priceless experience in infrastructure setup as well as managing shareholders expectations.
With this new skillset under her belt, Azizah spread her wings to Aetna delivering highest quality care with smooth and effective coordination to corporate clients, intermediaries and providers.
In the merger & acquisition exercise of ING Group with Aetna, she’s part of the team that successfully lead the restructuring and leverage on specific expertise of both companies. After spending 4 years with AIG S.E Asia, she pursue her career in corporate advisory and gained broad exposure in the corporate circle with close relationship and strong rapport with various authorities.
At 48 years old, Memi still has the flickering fire that the youth has — exactly what the Herons Academy needs as the Strategic Advisor.
Rosman Ishak
A no stranger to the Performing Arts industry, Rosman bin Ishak began his journey in the industry as a cultural artist at the national theatre, Istana Budaya.
He started his formal education by taking the Creative Arts Certificate in 1993, later graduated in Diploma of Theatre Arts in 1998. His education did not stop there, as later on he pursued and graduated from two degrees from University of Malaya in Bachelor of Performing Arts (Drama) and Bachelor of Education in Curriculum Development.
Involved in over 80 theatres both as an actor and producer, Rosman’s passion in theatre is channeled professionally through other mediums as well: by working as a lecturer, workshop facilitator, costume creator and voice coach.
A man with principle, he believes the key in creating high quality work is through communication and exceptional aspects of management.
Mohammed Amiruddin Jumaat
Mohamed Amiruddin Jumaat is an industrial mathematician specializing in revenue management, mathematical programming and advanced analytics with over 20 years of experience in the transportation and logistics industry.
He was the CIO instrumental in establishing KL Airport Service IT infrastructure and successfully led its Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer programme. As the Operations Research Manager, he builds Malaysia Airlines’ capabilities applying advance analytical methods to make better business decisions.
He earned his B.Sc. Mathematics from California State University, M.Sc. Operations Research from Stanford University and an MBA from Ohio University. Amiruddin is a strong believer in sports as a platform for nation-building and youth development.
He runs a football club competing in Selangor League and a soccer academy participating in various youth competitions. He is the founder of a nationwide multi-sports competition across different age groups. He aspires to create a sports academy for each club under the league.
Normawati Mohamed Roji
A specialist in Human Resource Management, Normawati possesses an impressive CV in her area of expertise; with progressive work covering a wide range sectors such as Oil and Gas, IT, Telecommunication, Private Education, to name a few.
Holding a masters degree in Human Resource Management from University of Ballarat (UOB), Australia, Norma has more than 10 years of experience working in the HR field. She also pursues her other passion as well, education, where her journey begins by working as part-time basis dated way back in 2000.
Currently, she is working full-time as a principal for Brightside Home Tutorial – A Home-based Tuition. Brightside covers a wide array of Malaysia’s school syllabus from offering classes and prepares students for major examinations on small groups basis and personal tutors, as well as HR classes for college students.
Norma believes that students need motivation sessions, counselling in addition to fun learning environment to excel, while the teachers maintain a close relationship with the student and parents, thus setting Brightside apart from other tuition centres and Tutor TVs.
Rozita Mohamed Kamarudin
Rozita is a Chartered Accountant with 24 years of experience in Accounting and Management. A member of Malaysian institute of Accountant (MIA) from 2006, she holds a Practicing License issued by MIA since 2016.
She has a vast experience in Accounting and Management from enterprises and corporates, and holds various positions in accounts, finances, management and also as a Chief Financial Officer prior to setting up her business.
Rozita is the founder and partner of AR Success, an accounting firm in Bandar Sri Permaisuri Cheras.
With a burning passion for consultation in accounting and management, she is the expert you want to simplify concepts in layman’s term especially to business owners and staffs that lack accounting background. Now, she handles more than 100 clients from micro to medium size company.
Rozita traveled across Malaysia as a guest speaker, to share her passion, knowledge and experience in Business Accounting to entrepreneurs.
Dr. Diana Sabrina Redzuan Lim
Young but a competent doctor and also an entrepreneur for skincare and wellbeing, Dr. Diana started her career as any other doctor — as a houseman officer.
As a houseman, she was in charge of consulting patients in the outpatient clinic, presenting and summarizing cases to her superior Medical Officers and Medical Specialists, carried out ward procedures such as blood taking, CPR, learnt to request various diagnostic investigations from the radiology department and assisted in various surgeries in the operation theatre.
Her one-year experience in the medical field taught her how patients are being managed by the hospital, for both inpatient and outpatient settings.
Diana then work as a manager for Hannan Medispa Seremban, a beauty centre. Throughout her one year experience as the manager, she learns marketing and entrepreneurship skills, and that customer satisfaction is the key to be sustainable in the business industry.
Currently, she is operating her own business, DNA Medispa in Sek 7 Shah Alam.
Taha Firoz Husain
Graduated with First Class Honours from Bachelor of Civil Engineering at Universiti Tenaga Nasional and Masters in Business Administration at UTM, Taha is a top, model student with a superb work ethic and that can be shown by these two impressive feat — representing his university for ASEAN Build & Break and International Bridge Competition.
He kick-started his career as a trainee and an intern for 4 companies in a 3 years span, and finally working at Sunway Construction Group from 2012 — now as assistant manager in Civil and Structure. With this position, Taha has many responsibilities, with one of them is to liaise and coordinate activities related to VDC/BIM with the client’s representatives and among consultants, project team, surveyors, sub-contractors to ensure all requirements are fully addressed and incorporated during design and construction stage.
A hard worker with more than 8 years experience in his field, Taha is rated as the top and outstanding rating for companies annual performance many times throughout his career,
Ridzuan & Norsida
Introducing our mentors in culinary experts, Ridzuan and Norsida have been working in the culinary industry for more than 16 and 17 years respectively.
The couple graduated in Foodservice and Culinary in 2003, and has been working ever since.
Both of them have worked in various positions in the culinary industry, from sous chefs, demi chefs and chefs to working as managers themselves, serving thousands local dishes and delights as well as pastries.
Ridzuan and Norsida currently has an online Food and Beverages store, that caters to thousands of Malaysians across the country.
