Datuk Fadilah has recently opted for early retirement from the civil service on 1 Feb 2020. Her last employment was as the Director General of the national standards and accreditation body, Standards Malaysia, a federal government agency under MITI. She served as the Director General from 2006 until 1 Feb 2020. When she was at the helm of Standards Malaysia for 14 years, Fadilah played a critical role in positioning Malaysian capabilities and potential, through her strong advocacy for standards, quality, certification, and accreditation for local and global competitiveness.

From the 6,000 Malaysia Standards developed, Fadilah has succeeded in working together with many industry and government stakeholders including regulators and enforcement agencies in ensuring that standards are enforced for the safety of people and protection of the environment. Examples of Malaysia Standards developed and has created high impact for Malaysia are in mitigating earthquake, universal design standards for vulnerable people, safe playgrounds, cyber security, edible birds nest, MSPO (Malaysia Sustainability Palm Oil) certification, madu kelulut etc etc. Fadilah has a strong passion for “halal” activities too. Most notable, she successfully developed the first halal standard, MS 1500 in 2004 entitled “Halal Food – Production, Preparation, Handling And Storage – General Guidelines” that is currently being used everywhere in the world apart from Malaysia. Her last halal standard during her tenure as Director General was the launch of MS 2636 in Jan 2020 for Halal Medical Devices. To date, 15 halal standards ranging from food right up to lifestyle have been developed and used, not only by JAKIM in Malaysia for certification but also countries such as Australia, Brazil and Japan as well as international organisations including the OIC SMIIC (Standards & Metrology Institute of the Islamic Countries). Fadilah was a member Board of Directors of the OIC Standards Body SMIIC for the term 2018 – 2020. Due to her enormous contribution on halal, in 2016, she was awarded “Tokoh Maulidur Rasul” at the National Level by HRH the Yang di Pertuan Agong. ​

In the world of standards, Fadilah is a strong advocator for the brand “Creating a Quality Culture” targeting the young and future generation. Amongst the most popular national program that catches the attention of young Malaysians is the National Standards Olympiad which she hopes will become one of the national icon program for our children. 2 of 2 Recognising the importance of accreditation for laboratories or facilities that provide testing services in Malaysia, Fadilah has created the Persatuan Makmal Akreditasi Malaysia (PMAM) in 2015. Datuk Fadilah’s vision in establishing the PMAM is to have an official platform for the labs/facilities to get together and in turn they will be able to grow and prosper together in their businesses both locally and abroad. ​

She also succeeded in getting Malaysia to be granted signatory status to Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) of two international accreditation bodies ie International Lab Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF). Besides executing the functions as mandated by the Standards of Malaysia Act 1996 (Act 549), she has extensive experience in international negotiations including the Malaysia-US Free Trade Agreement Negotiation for the Technical Barriers to Trade Chapter. Fadilah’s active involvement at regional levels of ASEAN and APEC; as well as at international levels of ISO, IEC and WTO/TBT has placed her to become a member in the international policy forum ie the ISO Council for the terms 2013 – 2015 and 2017 – 2019. She also sat as a member of the ISO Advisory Group to the Chair of a Policy Committee for Developing Countries. During her tenure at the ISO Council 2013 – 2015, she played a vital role in institutionalising, for the first time ever, the ISO regional office out from Geneva, ie Singapore. ​

​Known to be a thorough professional, Fadilah promotes values of commitment, cohesiveness, and credibility at her workplace, positively influencing good governance, economic performance, national development and above all, the people’s well-being. Fadilah graduated from the Salford University, England in Health & Environmental Physics (majoring in nuclear power radiation protection) in 1984. She attended the Premium Business Management Program by Harvard Business School in 2010; as well as attended the Senior Leadership Program: Branding Leaders, Branding the Nation organised by the Razak School of Government (RSOG) in partnership with Said Business of Oxford University in 2015. In 2013, she was conferred by the Rt Hon Prime Minister of Malaysia as a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences (ASM) carrying the tittle FASc.