OUTSTANDING SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS
PROFILE
Name
Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes (Non-Executive Director of AirAsia)
Category
Business people
Born
30 April 1964 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
(age 49)
Group Chief Executive Officer / Director of AirAsia Berhad and founder of Tune Occupation Group Sdn Bhd / Chairman of QPR Holdings Ltd / Founder and former Team Principal of Caterham F1 Net worth
Wealth
US$ 625 million (2013)
In 2012, Forbes Asia valued Fernandes' personal wealth at $615 million ranking him at number 15 on the Forbes list of Malaysia's Richest.
BACKGROUND Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes commonly known Tony Fernandes was named the Businessman of the Year on Forbes Asia Magazine dated December 20, 2010. He is the first Malaysian and Southeast Asian to receive the award. This successful businessman is the founder of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd., who launched the first budget no-frills airline known as AirAsia. Now Tony Fernandes is acting as the Non-Independent Non-Executive Director of AirAsia Berhad. This Malaysian entrepreneur has able to make many people dream come true with his own by “Now everyone can fly”-AirAsia.
Fernandes was born in Kuala Lumpur to an Indian father (a physician, originally from Goa) and Portuguese-Eurasian mother, Ena Dorothy Fernandes of Malacca, Malaysia. At a young age, he used to follow his mother, a businesswoman, to Tupperware dealer parties and conventions.
ACHIEVEMENT When Tony Fernandes was 12 he went to boarding school in England. He studied in Epsom College 1977-1983 and took his graduation from the London School of Economics in 1987. Fernandes started his career as an accountant but “auditing drove me completely nuts” so after
six months he wrote to every record company because he was a musician as well. Later he became financial controller for Richard Branson's Virgin Records in London from 1987 to 1989. Tony Fernandes got admitted as Associate Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in 1991 and became Fellow Member of it in 1996. He joined Warner Music International London as Senior Financial Analyst (1989-1992). Later became Managing Director of Warner Music Malaysia as the youngest managing director. In the year 1992 to 2001 Tony Fernandes was the South East Asian regional vice president for Warner Music Group. However, when Time Warner Inc announced its merger with America Online Inc Tony Fernandes took his first step towards Air line companies.
Mr Fernandes and some friends bought Air Asia from a Malaysian government-owned company in September 2001 for a mere 25 pence. That time AirAsia was in big debt. He said, “It really was a little bit of stick your finger in the air and hope for the best. But we were good marketing people from the music business. We just went out there and felt the market and said if you halve the fare, there's a huge enormous untapped market.”Like the airlines in western world Tony introduced short hail low cost carrier. Fernandes mortgaged his home and sank his savings to acquire the company, comprising two ageing Boeing 737-300 jets (9M-AAA and 9M-AAB) and US$11 million (RM40 million) worth of debts, for 26 US cents (one ringgit), and transformed it into an industry player. Back in 2002 he started with two planes and now 86 aircraft flying 30million people around the world. Tony Fernandes did not stop on that. Later he started a hotel chain on the no frills concept. He became the team principal of the Caterham F1 Formula One team which began racing in 2010 as the Lotus Racing. On 18 August 2011 he bought 66% share of famous football club named Queens Park Rangers. He have shown interest and succeeded in many sectors. He owned many awards like “Malaysia CEO of the year 2003” by American Express and the Business Times, “Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year – Malaysia 2003” at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the
Year Awards in 2004, “Airline Business Strategy Award 2005 and Low Cost Leadership” by Airline Business and he was also named Asia Pacific Aviation Executive by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) for the year 2004 and 2005. In 2009 “CAPA Legend Award 2009”, “Aviation Hall of Fame” and “Airline CEO of the Year Award for 2009”.In 2010 he got “Officer of the Legion d' Honneur” He was ranked number 19 on the Forbes list of Malaysia’s Richest
with his net wealth of US$ 700 million and still increasing .
AIRASIA COMPANY 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 Mohammad in October 2001.
Instead of starting from scratch, Mahathir advised Fernandes to buy an existing airline instead. AirAsia, the heavily-indebted subsidiary of the Malaysian government-owned conglomerate, DRB-Hicom, was quickly losing money. Fernandes mortgaged his home and used his personal savings to acquire the company, comprising two ageing Boeing 737-300 jets (9M-AAA and 9MAAB) and US$11 million (RM40 million) worth of debts, 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 staffs were readily available. He believed Malaysian travellers would embrace a cut-rate air service that would save them time and money, especially in a tight economy. That was why he copied one of the world's most successful nofrills carriers, Ireland's Ryanair (which is in turn modelled after Southwest Airlines in the United States). Fernandes estimates about 50 per cent of the travellers on Asia’s budget airlines are first-
time flyers. Before AirAsia, he estimated that only six per cent of Malaysians had ever travelled in a plane. Below are the picture of airasia plane and their branch partnership.
OTHER VENTURES TUNE HOTELS In 2007, Fernandes started a hotel chain, Tune Hotels, based on the no-frill concept. The first Tune Hotel was opened in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. As of 2009, Fernandes is also the president of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL). Fernandes has stated that it has always been a dream of his to be able to be involved with the development of sports in the ASEAN region. As of 2013, Fernandes is also involved in a reality TV series: The Apprentice Asia is an Asian reality game show in which a group of aspiring young businessmen and women compete for the chance to work with the Fernandes, who also serves as the host of the show. This picture show that the tune hotels company and a part of their facilities.
CATERHEM GROUP Fernandes is the founder of the Caterham F1 Formula One team, which began racing in 2010 as Lotus Racing and raced in 2011 as Team Lotus. On 16 December 2009, Fernandes accepted a "challenge" from Richard Branson, a fellow airline boss and the owner of Lotus' fellow F1 newcomers Virgin Racing. The losing team's boss would work on the winner's airline for a day dressed as a stewardess. Fernandes joked "The sexier the
better. Our passengers will be delighted to be served by a Knight of the Realm, but knowing Richard, the real challenge will be to prevent him from asking our guests 'coffee, tea or me?' That would be scary." In addition, the team produced a poster depicting Branson in an Air Asia uniform. However, the date of the flight was delayed several times: first because of Branson breaking his leg, then because of the royal wedding, finally because of a fire at the Necker Island. On 19 December 2012, Fernandes announced that Branson would honour his bet in May 2013. Branson ultimately honored the bet on 13 May 2013. Picture shows the Caterham F1 Team.
AWARDS Fernandes' biggest achievement has been to turn the AirAsia airline into an international carrier. Before the creation of AirAsia, countries in the region did not have open-skies agreements. In mid-2003, Fernandes' lobbying pushed Dr Mahathir to raise the idea with the leaders of neighbouring Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore. As a result, those nations have granted landing rights to AirAsia and other discount carriers. Fernandes opened up the budget carrier sector in the region. 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. Fernandes has received several awards for his achievements:
International Herald Tribune Award for the "Visionaries & Leadership Series", for his outstanding work in AirAsia;
"Malaysian CEO of the Year 2003" in December 2003; so far awarded to only nine other recipients in the country, by American Express and Business Times. The award was an initiative to recognize entrepreneurial and managerial expertise and performance among leaders of Malaysian corporations.
Named the joint winner of the CEO of the Year 2003 award by American Express Corporate Services and Business Times.
"Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year" in the Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards" in 2003;
Made the list of Business Week's "25 Stars of Asia" in 2005.
Malaysian Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of the Year 2006"
"Excellence In Leadership - Asia Pacific Leadership Awards 2009"
2010 Forbes Asia businessman of the year
2011 No. 52, in FastCompany Top 100 Most Creative People in Business.
Fernandes has also been honoured by the King of Malaysia with the title Tan Sri, Dato' Sri and also by the government of France with the Legion d'Honneur Order. In 2011, according to a Team Lotus press release, Tony Fernandes was awarded a CBE or Commander of the Order of the British Empire "for services to promote commercial and educational links" between Malaysia and the UK. Below are some images of award.
Lotus boss Tony Fernandes holds his CBE medal awarded to him by Princess Anne at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
AirAsia Group CEO Dato' Sri Dr. Tony Fernandes was the proud recipient of the Masterclass Global CEO of the Year award at the 2nd Malaysia Business Leadership Award (MBLA) 2010 ceremony, held at the Grand Ballroom of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC)
REFERENCES http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Fernandes http://peoplexplorer.com/sindex.php?name=Tony%20Fernandes&todo=Search
