About
Mohamad Adi Afif.
IT leader. Founder.
Currently the Head of IT at Bertam Resort & Waterpark a role I was promoted to after just three months. Reaching a manager position at the international hotel level by age 26 was a tough but incredibly rewarding journey that gave me invaluable experience, a strong network, and a solid foundation in the industry.
I’m a proud 'hotelier IT' professional, but I operate much more like a Project Manager than a traditional property-level IT Manager. I thrive on leading projects, optimizing costs (even if numbers aren't my favorite thing!), and most importantly, connecting with people to get things done.
As a leader, I am flexible, results-oriented, and an innovative critical thinker. While I'm still enjoying the journey and gathering industry experience, my ultimate goal is to transition into full-time entrepreneurship before I turn 35. I am always eager for the next challenge and looking forward to the next big project!"
7+
Years in IT
6
Property managed
27+
Projects delivered
RM300K
Revenue led in freelances
Career
2026 –
Now
Now
Group Head of Information Technology
Bertam Resort & Water Park Penang · Penang
Three properties, five staff, one Group Head. Managing full IT strategy for Bertam Resort, Souk Waterpark, and Bertam Wellness & Spa Villa (SLH/Hilton).
Current
2025
IT Manager (Pre-Opening)
Holiday Inn & Suites Penang Prai by IHG
Full IHG pre-opening delivery. 18 VMware servers, Meraki firewall, Opera V5 PMS, Simphony POS, 330 rooms. Done in 60 days.
2023 – 25
IT Executive
Angsana Teluk Bahang by Banyan Tree · Penang
Opera Cloud migration (8hrs downtime), dual SST implementation, Active Directory migration. Won C3 Asia IT Security Award 2024.
2022 – 23
Project Manager & Partner
Gatocom IT Services · Ipoh
Grew team from 2 to 18. Delivered RM600K revenue. 4,500+ devices across 1,102 schools in 60 days.
2021 – 22
Senior IT Executive, Head of Unit
Perak Corporation Berhad & Casuarina Hotels
Board committee member. Led IT across parent company and hotel subsidiary. Reduced OPEX 30% in Q4 2021.
2019 – 21
IT Executive
Swiss-Garden International (now DoubleTree by Hilton)
5-star beach resort. Opera PMS, Micros POS, networking, full IT ops. Led asset disposal during Hilton transition.
2017 – 19
Resident Engineer (UOB)
CTC-Global Sdn Bhd · Kuala Lumpur
On-site at United Overseas Bank HQ. Started as intern, converted to permanent. Mentored junior engineers.
2015 – 17
IT Technician
Tyfon Tech · Kuala Lumpur
Hardware repair, onsite support. Started before finishing diploma. Sold PCs during the early Malaysian esports boom.
A note on ambition
I'm 29. My goal is to be a full-time entrepreneur before 35. I've been running companies alongside my career since 2017 — Adaf Technology, then as a partner at Gatocom, now Abais Global. The career was never a distraction from that. It's the unfair advantage.
Diploma in Computer System and Administration, SG Academy College — CGPA 3.45, class of 2018.
Work
Things I've
built & led.
Projects from my own companies and ventures — spanning SaaS, web development, and enterprise IT delivery.
Abais Global
Active · Founder
IT services company I founded in 2023. We offer consultation, custom web application development, and system integration for private and government clients. 7 custom web apps and 20+ websites in the portfolio. Currently building AbaísHub, our first SaaS product.
AbaísHub
In Development
Our latest SaaS product. Built on seven years of firsthand experience in hospitality IT — the pain points, the gaps, the workflows no off-the-shelf product handles well. Details coming soon.
Marriott Tribute Portfolio Conversion
Ongoing
Leading the full technology transformation of Bertam Resort for Marriott brand alignment — PMS migration, IPTV modernisation, core network redesign, and infrastructure upgrade to Marriott standards.
Opera Cloud Migration — Banyan Tree
Delivered
Full PMS migration from Opera V5 to Opera Cloud for Angsana Teluk Bahang. Managed data migration, reconfiguration of 2,000+ products and 9,000 transaction codes, vendor coordination, UAT, and user training — with only 8 hours of total downtime.
IHG Pre-Opening — Holiday Inn Penang
Delivered
Delivered complete IT infrastructure for a 330-room IHG hotel in under 60 days. 18 VMware servers, full Meraki network, Opera V5 PMS, Simphony POS, StreamVision IPTV, Dormakaba door locks, 80+ workstations, and full IHG compliance. Zero delay on opening day.
Ministry of Education Perak — IT Maintenance
Delivered
Preventive maintenance for 4,500+ desktops and printers across 1,102 schools in Perak. Completed in 60 days, coordinating 28 onsite engineers across the entire state. One of the largest field deployments I've managed.
Gatocom IT Services
2022 – 2023
Joined the founding team as partner and project manager. Grew the business from 2 to 18 staff within a year, delivering RM600,000 in annual revenue through enterprise IT projects for government and corporate clients across Perak.
Adaf Technology
2017 – 2022
My first company, founded while still building my career. Operated through COVID. Eventually closed to focus on career growth — but it taught me everything about running a business solo.
Reading
What I'm
reading & thinking.
Articles, ideas, and writing that shaped how I think about technology, business, and building things.
The Lean Startup
Book · Business
The idea that you should validate before you build changed how I think about product development. I've applied this thinking to how I approach every new system or SaaS idea — build the smallest thing that tells you if you're right.
Zero to One
Book · Entrepreneurship
Thiel's argument that real value comes from building something genuinely new rather than competing in crowded markets resonates with why I want to build specifically for hospitality tech — it's an underserved niche I know better than most.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Book · Leadership
No one tells you what running a company actually feels like — the decisions with no good options, the team dynamics, the pressure. This book comes closest to honest. I read it during a particularly difficult stretch at Gatocom.
Paul Graham's Essays
Essays · Startups
Do Things That Don't Scale. Keep Your Identity Small. How to Do What You Love. I come back to these essays regularly. They're short, but each one reframes something I thought I understood.
Atomic Habits
Book · Productivity
Running a company, managing three properties, and building products simultaneously requires systems more than motivation. This book gave language to what I was already doing intuitively — and made it more intentional.
How Stripe built a developer culture
Article · Tech
Stripe's obsession with documentation, developer experience, and thinking carefully about every interaction with their product is something I try to bring into how I document IT systems and build internal processes.
The Mom Test
Book · Product
How to ask the right questions to validate your business idea without getting lied to (even with good intentions). Essential reading before building AbaísHub. The hospitality GM who says "yes this sounds great" may not actually buy it.
Journey
Life beyond
the screen.
The personal side. Where I'm from, how I got here, and what drives me outside of work.
2026
Group Head at 29
Got promoted from IT Manager to Group Head of IT at Bertam within three months of joining. Managing three properties simultaneously — the resort, the waterpark, and the luxury villa. It's the most complex role I've had and the one I'm most proud of so far. Penang is starting to feel like home.
2025
Moving to Penang
Relocated to Penang for the IHG pre-opening role. A new state, a new brand, a 60-day countdown to opening. The pressure was real — but delivering a hotel on time is one of those things you can only really understand by doing it. Penang's food culture is also excellent.
2024
C3 Asia IT Security Award
Won the C3 Asia IT Security Award for Banyan Tree properties while at Angsana Teluk Bahang. Regional recognition. It meant more than I expected — validation that the security practices and policies I'd been building quietly were actually world-class.
2023
Starting over — founding Abais Global
After Adaf Technology closed and the Gatocom chapter ended, I started again solo. Abais Global. Same mission, cleaner structure, full ownership. There's something clarifying about building alone — every decision is yours, every mistake is yours too. I prefer it that way.
2022
From 2 to 18 — learning to build a team
At Gatocom I went from managing myself to managing 18 people in about a year. I learned that hiring well is harder than any technical problem. I also learned that the people who show up quietly and do the work are worth more than the ones who interview well. Lessons I still carry.
2020
COVID and a beach resort
The pandemic hit while I was at Swiss-Garden Beach Resort. Hotel operations almost stopped. At one point I was covering landscaping, security, and housekeeping because there simply weren't enough staff. It was surreal — and oddly one of the most formative periods of my career. You learn what you're made of in a quiet hotel.
2017
Adaf Technology — first company, before graduation
Started my first company before I finished my diploma. I didn't know what I was doing. I learned by doing. That version of me — selling laptops at esports events, fixing computers on weekends, building a client list from scratch — is the foundation of everything that came after.
2015
First job. First lesson.
Started as a part-time IT technician at Tyfon Tech in Kepong while studying. My first lesson: show up, do the work well, and people notice. The same lesson that got me converted from intern to permanent at UOB two years later. It still works.
Always
The goal: entrepreneur before 35
I'm 29. I have six years. The career wasn't a detour — it was deliberate. Seven years inside hospitality IT means I understand the problems better than any outsider building tools for the industry. That's the advantage. Now it's time to use it. Abais Global is the vehicle. AbaísHub is the first real bet.