Mariam Aisha, President, DSAK Group of Companies
Some accept life as it comes; content to follow paths already laid out for them. And then there are those who believe that life is too short to be lived on someone else’s terms and choose to carve out their own direction. Mariam-Aisha, the president of DSAK Group of Companies, falls firmly into the latter. For her, entrepreneurship wasn’t a single turning point but a string of decisions shaped by both success and failure. She never subscribed to the idea of letting someone else dictate her course. “I have always thought that life is an adventure, and you only have one life to live. Why allow someone else to dictate that life for you? It excites me to go where others have not gone yet and plan things ahead, then see them unfolding before your eyes,” she asserts.
From the earliest moments, Mariam learned that each choice in life carries its own lesson—success brings confidence, but failure teaches resilience. Facing setbacks and observing and learning from the mistakes of others showed her how to pick herself up, adjust her approach, and keep moving forward. She learned to read situations, make quick decisions, and keep going without waiting for someone else to step in. For Mariam, entrepreneurship has never been about waiting for the perfect moment; it’s about taking action, learning along the way, and finding a way through each obstacle on her own terms. Today, as the president of the DSAK Group of Companies, she works closely with the Founder and Chairman, His Excellency Dato’ Seri Capt. (R.) Kamarudin Kumaravel bin Abdullah. Together, they actively support veterans of the Malaysian Armed Forces while contributing to the group’s broader mission of business growth, sustainability, and community development.
A Purpose-Driven Leap
Life has a way of taking you where you never thought you’d go. For Mariam-Aisha, stepping into the DSAK Group of Companies was one such turn. “I have to give more than 100% credit to my husband. Call it a coincidence, but life brings you to unexpected places,” she says. What pulled her toward the role was a combination of mentorship, hands-on coaching, and a personal drive to support vulnerable communities, especially in her own country. For Mariam, it was a chance to combine her experience with her commitment to making a difference, turning challenges into opportunities to help others while continuing her journey as an entrepreneur.
Mariam is a strong advocate for lifelong learning, ESG practices, and the values of culture, diversity, and inclusivity. Her work shows a steady effort to bridge business leadership with social responsibility. More recently, she authored 99 Beads: Poems of Life & Healing, a work that speaks to both children and adults while encouraging empathy, diversity, and support for vulnerable communities.
Building a Legacy Across Industries
Established in 2019, DSAK Group of Companies began as a commodity wholesaler and quickly grew into a multifaceted enterprise spanning a wide range of industries. Today, its operations include project management, education services, aircraft and logistics services, haulage and vessel operations, as well as the supply of military equipment and mining products. The company is also a trusted supplier of packaged foods, fresh local fruits, and essential provisions, including oil and gas products. DSAK Group serves a diverse clientele, from government-funded boarding schools and the Malaysian Armed Forces’ retail network to numerous cooperatives. What sets the company apart is not just the breadth of its offerings, but the culture behind them. Once a task is assigned, the team takes full ownership, approaching every challenge with precision and a commitment to quality.
The dedicated team at DSAK Group ensures that even the most complex projects are completed on time and at competitive rates. At its core, DSAK Group is driven by a simple but powerful vision: to be a leading and reputable supplier of food, provisions, specialized military equipment, aircraft services, education services, and oil and gas—both in Asia and beyond. Its reputation isn’t built on size alone, but on the ability to take on complex challenges, delivering results that speak for themselves, and building trust along the way. Working with business partners, military equipment manufacturers, aircraft providers, local farmers and agriculture industries hand in hand to enable local communities to thrive.
Learning from Early Challenges
In her early career, Mariam ran into something most people notice but few say out loud: the exploitation of talent. “Often, those who struggle to perform end up using others’ work to make it seem like they can,” she explains. It’s a common pattern in many workplaces—office politics taking the spotlight while the real contributors fade into the background. From these experiences, she drew one key lesson—that any workplace works best when talent is valued, encouraged, celebrated, and coached. Without that, she realized, no company can build true continuity or long-term strength.
Her leadership philosophy is rooted in these early lessons. Mariam sees herself as a servant leader, someone who shows the way first before asking others to follow. “We make sure we’ve done it ourselves before training downline or delegating it to others,” she adds. By leading from the front and demonstrating what’s expected, she fosters an environment of trust and accountability, building a team that’s capable, empowered, and committed to the organization’s goals.
Set To Expand Its Global Footprint
Moving ahead, DSAK Group aspires to further expand its reach while staying true to the values that shaped its early growth. Equipped with a great team, decades of service excellence, and industry expertise, Mariam is confident that DSAK Group will continue its surge in growth in the future. However, she emphasizes that success isn’t defined by numbers alone. “We started humbly, building strength in trade, property, and services, but the journey doesn’t end there,” she reflects. To her, growth means scaling with intention, reaching international markets, and forming alliances with partners who share the same values and vision. She isn’t afraid to step outside the familiar or outside the comfort zone. The Group is now looking at industries that call for both resilience and deep expertise—ranging from aviation, defense, and security to oil and gas, livestock, metals, engineering, project management, and education. The goal is not diversification alone. It is about channeling DSAK’s growth into sectors where it can make a tangible difference to the Malaysian economy, scaling steadily but with purpose.
Women Leading the Next Chapter
For Mariam-Aisha, empowering women begins with courage. She encourages young women to be daring enough to try new things and to step into opportunities that may feel uncertain at first. At her own companies, she instills an entrepreneurial mindset among her teams, training employees not just to work within the business, but to think and act like entrepreneurs themselves.
She sees Asia as one of the most dynamic frontiers for women-led ventures, a region whose sheer population and economic momentum continue to drive global trade. “Asia has the largest population on earth, therefore driving global trade and world business. Women in our own rights have special capabilities to ensure the nurturing growth of a company, as the various cultures in Asia thrive on family-oriented values, which may contradict European and Western values,” she explains.
With the right mentorship and support, she believes women will continue to play defining roles across the region, shaping economies, politics, and social governance. She points out that Asia already has significant women leader — women led aviation in India, the banking and education industry in Malaysia, to defense in Malaysia, India, Thailand and China, Asia as a whole — women who continue to redefine what leadership looks like across industries long dominated by men. “Women never fail to be the backbone behind male-led industries and now as globalization takes place, men are becoming the backbone behind women leaders. In the future, we may even see more women representing the current male-dominated industries,” she concludes, looking ahead with optimism.
The Team – Please refer to www.dsakgroup.com