Updates on 23-8-2013 @1:00 am:
Rumour has it that Dr Hugh Dunleavy’s salary is in the region of RM100,000-00 a month plus other perks. His two years contract will expire in mid January 2014. Rumour also has it that Dr Hugh is lobbying to have his contract extended. Under the circumstances, Dr Hugh can not be blamed for lobbying for extension. This also apply to a few others!
From now on, Dr Hugh had to be extremely nice to Puan Zahrah Zaid, formerly from Danone Biscuit Company. She joined MAS during the MAS-AirAsia share swap. About Puan Zahrah Zaid please read “Now Everyone Can Join MAS”.
Dr Hugh is known for his VAST experience in Westjet. He joined Westjet in January 2005 and in 2011 he was made redundant. God knows why a man of such caliber was made redundant!
As at December 2007 Westjet was flying to only 26 destination within Canada and 12 in America. It has 70 aircrafts including its 13 owned 600s series, 16 leased and 35 owned 700s series. Revenue between $1 billion to $5 billion and employees between 5,000 to 10,000. Westjet is no bigger than AirAsia. No wonder Dr Hugh needed Seabury Consulting to think for him and his boys.
Next Change/AKAN DATANG: “The AJ’s Talented Hollywood & Bollywood STARS”
40 years and 9 months ago, the nation saw the birth of our “Golden Child”, MAS. That memorable day was 1-10-1972. Yg Bhg Tan Sri Aziz Abdul Rahman and the loyal Malaysians including Dr Mohamadon Abdullah, who is now a director of MAS, had to steer MAS from nothing and they did make us proud.
Yg Bhg Tan Sri Aziz Abdul Rahman, a “kampong boy” from Kelantan, which is synonymous with the enchanted “Cik Siti Wan Kembang”. Yours truly is also a “kampong boy” from Kelantan.
Yours truly believes that most, if not all Kelantanese are very proud of MAS not only it is our national icon but also it uses “WAU BULE” (means “Moon Kite” in Kelantanese dialect) as its logo (the Red and Blue WAU) from its inception until this day. But it was adulterated when AJ’s appointee En Al Ishal Ishak was appointed the VP for Promotion and Marketing. Please read HERE , HERE, HERE.
Of course, it was totally different from the “WAU” (Widespread Assets Un-Bundling) coined by BinaFikir Sdn Bhd, which was co-founded by none other than Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar and En Mohamad Rashdan Yusof aka Danny, when BinaFikir was appointed as consultant to save MAS. Its appointment was made when Tan Sri Nor Mohamad Yakop was the powerful then Finance Minister II.
When Yg Bhg Tan Sri Aziz Abdul Rahman was the MD of MAS in 1972, he didn’t have the habits of appointing expats as department head of MAS and/or the luxury of appointing foreign consultants to think for him and/or his managers. They had to work on their own with their limited experience and resources.
He had to pick the best local talents from the existing employees of MAS and together they built MAS from a small fleet of 6 B737-200 for the limited international routes and 6 F27 (Fokker) for domestic to become an internationally known airline. Yg Bhg Tan Sri Aziz Abdul Rahman’s background HERE.
In October 2012, En Ahmad Jauhari Yahya aka AJ celebrated MAS 40th Anniversary with a big bang but with nothing to shout about accept for the appointment of consultants to think for him and En Mohamad Rashdan Yusof aka Danny, the then Deputy Group CEO, who was handpicked by Tan Sri Azman Mokhrtar, the MD of Khazanah.
Both of them kicked off with the appointment of PlaneConsult from 16-1-2011 to 30-4-2011 as though they didn’t know that PlaneConsult is also the consultant of AirAsia and the chairman of PlaneConsult, Mr Connors McCarthy, who is one of the founders and a director of AirAsia.
The appointment of PlaneConsult wasn’t enough for AJ, he had the audacity to appoint Mr Shane Nollan, whose track records showed that he was evolving around low cost carrier as the Commercial Director of MAS.
It was during the Shane Nollan’s era that MAS closed down its overseas town offices altogether (like in Rome) or moved to its airport office, terminated profitable routes to Dubai and a few other destinations on the pretext of cutting cost.
When AirAsia X terminated its flights to London, Paris, Mumbai and other destinations, MAS began to ferry 50,000 AirAsia X passengers without a formal agreement being entered into.
When a formal agreement was entered into in a rush, MAS was charging below market fare for the said AirAsia X passengers and at the same time MAS had a higher luggage allowance and free meals on board. Just imagine MAS was then charging AirAsia X RM1,100 for KL /London! Read in HERE.
Malaysia proclaimed its independence on 31-8-1957. Malaysia has moved forward to its 56th years of independence. It would appear that AJ has not shaken off the shackle of colonisation where Malaysia were under the “orang puteh” in jacket.
Under AJ, about 20,000 MAS staffs have the misfortune of having to witness the appointment of about 8 foreigners to lead them in the various departments in the Commercial Unit. It was as though that AJ does not trust MAS staffs and/or he does not think much of them.
The questionable appointments after the infamous MAS-AirAsia share swap
Yours truly has already talked about the infamous appointment of that Shane Nollan from PlaneConsult.
1. Mr Shihaj Kutty
Danny appointed Mr Shihaj Kutty, an Indian national, as the Head of Pricing in MAS. He was formerly from Etihad. Before that he was with Gulf Air and the local KLM office in Qatar.
Of course, he is a highly qualified person. His academic qualification is Hotel Administration, which he obtained from Welcom Group Graduate School of Hotel Administration in India.
His so-called expertise is more on pricing, if any, and with little or no knowledge of Network and Revenue Management. He was, however, promoted to take over the post held by Dr Hugh Dunleavy (i.e. Head of Network Revenue Management).
2. Dr Hugh Dunleavy
He was appointed on 16-1-2012 under contract for 2 years as Head of Network and Revenue Management. At that material time, Mr Shihaj Kutty was reporting to him.
After Shane Nollan left MAS, AJ saw it fit to promote him as the Director of Commercial of MAS.
Dr Hugh was formerly from the low cost carrier Westjet in Canada. He was made redundant after Westjet went through a restructuring exercise in October 2011 when he was the vice president of strategy and planning.
Did Dr Hugh go through a proper interview in person before his appointment? No one seems to be able to confirm this.
After he was appointed as Director for Commercial, that Shihaj Kutty took over from Dr Hugh’s post as Head of Network and Revenue Management.
For the background, Director of Commercial is a very important post in MAS. Prior to the MAS – AirAsia share swap, this post was held by YM Tengku Azmil, who was the then CEO of MAS. YM Tengku Azmil had to leave MAS as the CEO within a few days after the said infamous share swap!
3. Mr Duncan Bureau
Mr Duncan Bureau was brought into MAS as Senior Vice President Sales & Distribution.
He was Senior Analyst Route Development in Westjet. He was made redundant in Westjet when it went through a restructuring exercise in 2011.
4. Mr Dean Dacko
Mr Dean Dacko was recently brought into MAS as senior Vice President Marketing and Promotion. He also heads Enrich.
He took over from En Al-Ishal Ishak, who was instrumental in changing MAS corporate colour and its logo from RED and BLUE to the miserable pale blue that would have cost MAS million of RM (the livery on the new A380). After changing the corporate colour and logo of MAS, En Al-Ishal Ishak left MAS to join AirAsia HERE.
Mr Dean Dacko is from Air Canada. Air Canada went through restructuring too in 2011 and more than 100 positions were axed. Rumour has it that Mr Dean Dacko left Air Canada after the restructuring exercise.
5. Mr John Felix
Mr John Felix of Sri Lankan origin was recently brought into MAS to head MASholidays.
He was with Emirates from 2000 to 2010. He then joined Destination Asia as COO for the region. It is believed that he is a friend of Mr Dean Dacko, the present MAS Vice President of Marketing and Promotions.
6 Mr Umesh Chibber
Mr Umesh Chibber was recently brought into MAS as Vice President for Pricing. He took over from Shihaj Kutty.
7. Mr Bennet Stephens
Mr Bennet Stephens, an Indian national, was recently brought into MAS as Senior Manager for Commercial but located in Sydney. Since AJ gave away the additional Sydney route to AirAsiaX , why was there a necessity to station a senior vice president in Sydney.
By the way the Government reserved the additional Sydney route for MAS for one year so that MAS could operate its A380 to Sydney. But AJ was so powerful that he could ignore the condition set by the government.
8. Mr Thomas Michael
Mr Thomas Michael, an Indian national, was brought into MAS as Vice President Operations Research.
AJ and his top management in MAS had to provide answers as to why the majority of these important appointees are from low cost airline when MAS is a legacy airline of at least 40 years old unlike Westjet and others airlines which these 8 so-called foreign “EXPERTS” came from.
The reporting structures of these newbies in MAS
Mr Umesh Chibber, Mr Bennet Stephens and Mr Thomas Michael are reporting to Mr Shihaj Kutty.
Rumour has it that another foreigner will be brought into MAS very very soon but no one is sure to head which department. Hopefully he or she will not be a replacement for AJ after mid of September 2013!
All the newbies including that Shihaj Kutty are reporting to another newbie namely Dr Hugh Dunleavy. What a “Happy Family”!
Yours truly believes that the total salaries that MAS had to cough out for these 8 foreign “EXPERTS” must be in the region of at least a few hundred thousand Ringgit! Is the MAS Ringgit well spent for them?
The Appointment of SEABURY CONSULTING
In the early part of this year, the top management of MAS appointed SEABURY CONSULTING to do a “Network Planning Analysis”. God knows what was the fee paid by MAS to SEABURY CONSULTING for this job! It had to be a few million Ringgit.
Hence, the sudden “turn around” decisions made by MAS to reinstate Dubai, Darwin and other routes which MAS terminated during the infamous MAS-AirAsia share swap because it was UNPROFITABLE.
AJ, please take note that it cost MAS money to terminate a route and it also cost money to MAS to reinstate it after a year of its termination. We all heard you screaming on top of your voice before that MAS is BLEEDING! But in your latest email of 14-8-2014 you stated that “Whilst we are still not yet out of the woods, …”. HERE.
We find what you have done and what you have said irreconcilable.
One would have thought that “Network Planning & Evaluation”could have been easily done by that Shihaj Kutty and his boys, the experts, Mr Umesh Chibber, Mr Bennet Stephens and Mr Thomas Michael. Further, with Dr Hugh as the Director of Commercial, it will be a piece of cake for them!
The appointment of Seabury Consulting has clearly shown that they knew next to nothing. Hence, the appointment of SEABURY CONSULTING to think for them and AJ too!
Before SEABURY CONSULTING could pick up their bags and leave for their base overseas, AJ and its top management saw it fit to commission it to do another project, which could be easily done by competent managers. But it was not be.
AJ has 8 foreign experts at his disposal and headed by none other than Dr Hugh Dunleavy, a former VP of Westjet a low cost carrier, and yet SEABURY CONSULTING had to be called in to do another project related to Fleet Planning and Analysis. Rumour has it that it cost MAS more than RM5 million! MAS must be BLEEDING severely by now.
AJ is drawing hundred of thousand Ringgit a month as salary plus perks, does MAS really need these 8 foreign so-called “EXPERTS”? AJ, please don’t tell us that you could not find 8 good Malaysians within and outside MAS to do the jobs that these 8 so-called foreign “experts” are doing!
AJ, did you even TRY to talent scout good experience Malaysians within and outside MAS?
By appointing these 8 so-called foreign “EXPERTS” and appointment of SEABURY CONSULTING to do the works that should have easily being done by them, Do you honestly believe that MAS staffs will work with you as a TEAM : to borrow your own words from your MEMO:
“..the strongest motivation that WE – you and I – as a team, can and will make this Business Plan work.”? HERE.
