Entrepreneur Profile
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Tan Sri Tony Fernandes |
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Founder & CEO of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd. |
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| Birthday | 30th April 1964 | ||
| Nationality | : | Malaysian |
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| Education | : | Epsom College |
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| Net Worth | : | US$ 745 Million | |
| Family | : | Deborah Lee Bergstorm (1st Wife) Chloe (Wife) Stephanie(Daughter) Stephen(Son) |
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Tony Fernandes introduced the first budget no-frills airline, AirAsia, to Malaysians with the tagline "Now everyone can fly"
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Background |
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Tan Sri (Dr.) Anthony Francis Fernandes PSM SSAP SPMP DPTJ OLH CBE (born 30 April 1964) is a Malaysian entrepreneur. He is the founder of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd., who introduced the first budget no-frills airline, AirAsia, to Malaysians with the tagline "Now everyone can fly". Fernandes managed to turn AirAsia, a failing government-linked commercial airline, into a highly successful budget airline public-listed company. He has since founded the Tune Group of companies. He is also the majority shareholder of Queens Park Rangers Football Club. He was also instrumental in lobbying the then-Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in mid-2003, to propose the idea of open skies agreements with neighboring Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore. As a result, these nations have granted landing rights to AirAsia and other discount carriers. As of February 2014, Forbes Asia valued Fernandes' net worth at $650 million, ranking him at number 28 on the Forbes list of Malaysia's Richest. |
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Childhood and Early Life |
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Fernandes was born in Kuala Lumpur on 30 April 1964 to an Indian father (originally from Goa) and a mother of mixed Indian (Malayali) and Asian-Portuguese (Kristang) descent who had been raised in Malacca, Malaysia. At a young age, he would follow his mother who sold Tupperware at Tupperware parties. He was educated at The Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur. Starting at age 12, from 1976 to 1983, he studied at Epsom College boarding school in England. He matriculated to the London School of Economics and graduated with a degree in accounting. |
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Career
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He worked very briefly with Virgin Atlantic as an auditor [citation needed], subsequently becoming the financial controller for Richard Branson's Virgin Communications in London from 1987 to 1989 before he joined Warner Music International London as Senior Financial Analyst. Fernandes was admitted as Associate Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in 1991 and became Fellow Member in 1996. He is currently a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Fernandes was formerly a Warner Music executive in Malaysia, and Vice President, ASEAN at Warner Music South East Asia from December 1999 to July 2001. When Time Warner Inc announced its merger with America Online Inc., Fernandes left to pursue his dream of starting a budget no-frills airline. In September 2001, Fernandes purchased AirAsia and became its chief executive. |
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Major Works (Product) |
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It was through Datuk Pahamin A. Rejab, the former secretary-general of the Malaysian Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry that Fernandes came to meet with then Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in October 2001. Instead of starting from scratch, Mahathir advised Fernandes to buy an existing airline. AirAsia, the heavily indebted subsidiary of the Malaysian government-owned conglomerate, DRB-Hicom, was losing money. Fernandes mortgaged his home and used his personal savings to acquire the company, comprising two Boeing 737-300 jet aircraft and debts of US$11 million (RM40 million), for one ringgit (about 26 US cents), and transformed it into an industry player. One year after his takeover, AirAsia had broken even and cleared all its debts. Its initial public offering (IPO) in November 2004 was oversubscribed by 130 per cent. Fernandes says his timing was in fact perfect: after 11 September 2001, aircraft leasing costs fell 40%. Also, airline lay-offs meant experienced staff were readily available. He believed Malaysian travelers would embrace a cut-rate air service that would save them time and money, especially in a tight economy. Fernandes estimates about 50 per cent of the travelers on Asia’s budget airlines are first-time flyers. [citation needed] Before the advent of AirAsia, he estimated that only six per cent of Malaysians had ever travelled by air. Fernandes' biggest achievement was to open up countries within the region to new budget carriers, which previously did not have open-skies agreements. As a result of Fernandes' lobbying in mid-2003, Dr Mahathir brought up the idea with leaders from neighboring countries. Those nations subsequently granted landing rights to AirAsia and other discount carriers. In Thailand and Indonesia, AirAsia holds a minority stake in the respective local companies. Thai AirAsia, a joint venture with Shin Corporation, Thailand’s largest telecommunication conglomerate, took to the skies in Feb 2004 and has to date carried over 1 million passengers in its first year of operations. PT Awair, re-launched as a low fare airline on 8 December 2004 and subsequently renamed Indonesia AirAsia, presently serves 5 domestic destinations in Indonesia. [citation needed] In 2018 Fernandes announced that more low-cost carrier terminals would be developed, and confirmed that while AirAsia needed new planes, he had not yet decided on an aircraft manufacturer. Fernandes’ plans to expand include bidding on the operations and maintenance contract for Clark International Airport in the Philippines. |
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Awards and Achievements
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Honours |
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| Malaysia | |||
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| Negeri Sembilan | |||
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| Pahang | |||
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| Perak | |||
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| Cambodia | |||
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| France | |||
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| United Kingdom | |||
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Awards
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Fernandes has received several awards for his achievements:
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Reference |
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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