Tony Fernandes

TONY FERNANDES

NAME: DR. ANTHONY FRANCIS FERNANDES

AGE: 51

SEX :MALE

EDUCATION : EPSOM COLLEGE, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

BACKGROUND:

Dr. Anthony Francis Fernandes, with the popular name as Tony Fernandes, is the  Group Chief Executive Officer AirAsia.

Year	Achievement
1989	-Financial Controller of Virgin Communications London -joining Warner Music International London
1991	- studied at Epsom College, UK, and the London School of Economics. - recognized as an Associate Member of the Association of Chartered Certified   Accountants.
1992	-Managing Director, Warner Music Malaysia
1994	- Executive Director of Innosabah Capital Management Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Innosabah Securities Sdn Bhd
1996	-Regional Managing Director, Warner Music South East Asia
1999	-Vice president of Warner Music South East Asia
2001	-Has been the Group CEO of AirAsia
2008	- member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
2010	- the French government had conferred on him the award of Officer of the Legion d'Honneur, the highest award that can be conferred on a non-French national
2011	- Gaining awards include the Honor of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire, conferred by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to promote commercial and educational links between the UK and Malaysia. - He was named as one of the world's 100 most creative people in business for by New York-based business magazine Fast Company -He was awarded the Inaugural ‘Travel Business Leaders Award’ winner by CNBC.

THE WAY TO SUCCESS AND HIS COMPANY:

When Tony Fernandes still was a child, the idea of building a budget airline company was firmly grew in his mind. This was because of, when he was in the age of 12, he has been sent to England for further study and he couldn’t get back to his hometown due to the high price fly ticket. He has accumulated the concept of low price fly whenever he get the chance to fly with his mother when she was doing her business. Tony Fernandes also get the strong support from his friend, Kamaruddin Meranun and Aziz Bakar. Three of them started to surf internet to collect and make their business plan with capital RM 1 million. In order to get the qualified licence of flying, they met Datuk Pahamin and they were suggested to have a meet with Perdana Menteri Dr Mahathir. After presentation the idea to Dr. Mahathir, he highly praised for the effort they paid, and he offered them to choose and take over one of the failure airline company from two. Due to the lack of capital problem, the idea has been delayed for a period. After this, Tony Fernandes met with one of his old friend with name DRB Hicom， the ex-owner of the AirAsia. He is agreed to sell his company to Tony Fernandes with RM 1. When that time, the AirAsia was in debt with RM 40 million, two planes, and 254 staffs. This transaction has been officially done on September 8, 2001. When that time, there is no company willing to invest in because they still have no brand. Without enough capital, Tony Fernandes and Kamuruddin Meranun pledged their house to raise modal. To start the journey to success and reputed their brand, AirAsia has undergone heavily cut cost through innovative solution, efficient processes, and passionate approach to business, by using the tagline “Now everyone can fly”. Until now, AirAsia has truly made air travel accessible to billions of people in Asean, Northeast Asia, and South Asia. Today, AirAsia has 130 aircrafts and 10,000 staffs and swiftly risen to become the world’s best low-cost airline.

THE REASONS WHY I CHOOSE TONY FERNANDES:

I choose the Tony Fernandes as one of my idols is due to several characteristic of his that doesn’t show on other enterpreneurer and I believe that, those characteristic is essential to help us to build up our own personality and achieving the success in the coming future. I would like to share my opinion about Tony Fernandes in the following:

Firstly, Tony Fernandes is never afraid to challenge the norm. Just a few years ago, the passengers are still needed to call a travel agent to buy a fly ticket. In order to provide a more convenient service to customers, Tony Fernandes challenged the norm by riding on the e-commerce wave. They also introduce online check in service to the customers. His innovative idea already created a huge success to his company.

Secondly, Tony Fernandes is always dare to think big and never give up on pursuing his dream. In the old time, the price of the fly ticket is always high and it cannot be afforded by everyone. At that time, Tony Fernandes was still a 12 years old boy but he has noticed this problem and he dares to dream to open his own low-cost airline, even though he still have no much idea and capital to start. He tried to overcome all these problem by spending much effort on it.

Thirdly, Tony Fernandes always be positive when facing the challenges. Although he has only RM 1 million and it is obviously not enough to buy the failure airline company, but he still be affirmative with that. He even has a high confident in re-building the airline company, which was in debt with RM4 million.