About Authority Institute
A Malaysian business advisory and management consulting firm, built for the founder-led SME, operated by Authority Advisory Sdn Bhd.
Built for the businesses that built Malaysia
Founder-led SMEs are the backbone of the Malaysian economy, yet most business consulting is designed for large corporations, and most SME support stops at training and motivation.
Authority Advisory exists for the business in between: established, successful, typically RM5 to RM20 million in revenue, and increasingly aware that what got it here will not get it to the next stage.
We help these businesses become more systems-led and professionally managed, so performance depends less on the founder personally holding everything together.
Our consulting philosophy
- Diagnose before prescribing: evidence first, recommendations second
- Plain business language, not consulting jargon
- Practical implementation, not reports that gather dust
- Honest advice, including when the answer is "don't hire us yet"
- Transfer capability: the goal is a client who needs us less over time
The people you will work with
A compact senior team. You work with experienced consultants, not a rotating cast of juniors.
Dato' James Foo
Co-Founder · Principal Consultant · Business Mentor
A serial entrepreneur and business strategist who has founded, operated or advised more than 90 businesses across different industries.
Read full profile
Known for seeing patterns others overlook, James helps founders find the real issue beneath the symptoms and make difficult decisions with clarity. He created the Business H.E.L.M. and New Profits frameworks, which help owners run their companies as interconnected systems.
He works best with founders whose businesses have outgrown their current way of operating and who want a trusted thinking partner for the next stage of growth.
Candy Moy
Co-Founder · Chief Executive Officer
Candy leads Authority Institute's consulting direction, client engagements and the development of its advisory methodologies.
Read full profile
She specialises in making complex business challenges easy to understand, connecting what the owner wants to achieve with what must change across strategy, operations, people and management.
Candy also leads the integration of AI into the firm's consulting work, and is often the bridge between vision and implementation: turning good ideas into clear priorities and meaningful action.
Rupert Lee
Marketing Specialist · AI Enabler
Rupert helps businesses become clearer in the market and stronger behind the scenes.
Read full profile
On marketing, he works on positioning, customer insight and offer design: the decisions underneath the advertising.
As an AI Enabler, he studies how work actually moves through the organisation and integrates AI into real workflows, keeping business judgement, accountability and people at the centre.
Judy Wong
HR Consultant
A senior HR practitioner with more than 30 years of experience across retail, manufacturing, oil and gas, financial services and regional operations.
Read full profile
Judy has led HR functions at company, group and regional levels across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, China and Hong Kong, covering restructuring, workforce planning, performance management and HR governance.
At Authority Institute, she helps growing SMEs professionalise their people practices without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
Lim Hsin Yee
Associate Consultant
A former IBM professional experienced in process design, governance, risk management and internal audit across Asia-Pacific.
Read full profile
Hsin Yee supports engagements through business analysis, stakeholder facilitation and turning detailed discussions into structured, actionable findings.
Fluent in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and Cantonese, and a Certified Translator with the Malaysian Translators Association, she bridges communication across every level of a client organisation.
Lam Chee Wan
Associate Consultant
Brings more than 18 years of experience across banking operations, securities services, compliance and institutional client management.
Read full profile
In banking, Chee Wan managed institutional portfolios of approximately US$45 billion in assets under custody and led operational teams serving international markets with service accuracy above 99.9%.
At Authority Institute, she brings structure to complexity: examining how decisions, processes and controls affect performance and risk, without losing sight of the commercial outcome.
Sectors we have served
Our consultants have worked with founder-led businesses across manufacturing, logistics, food and poultry, professional services, healthcare and wellness, machinery and retail.
[Approved client case studies and verified engagement history to be added with client permission]
Authority Advisory Sdn Bhd
Authority Advisory Sdn Bhd, a company registered in Malaysia, operates through two arms. Authority Advisory is the business advisory and consulting arm, and Authority Institute is the training and capability-development arm. Client engagements draw on both: consulting to diagnose and implement, and training to build your team's capability. We serve clients across Malaysia.
Authority Advisory Sdn Bhd · Company Registration No. 200801031555 (832888-M)
Block B, Unit 8, Level 3A, Icon City, Jalan SS 8/39,
Sungai Way Free Trade Industrial Zone, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Discuss your business with us
A confidential, no-obligation conversation about where your business stands and whether we are the right firm to help.