ANNUAL REPORT 2015
THE THIRD ISSUE
AIRASIA X BERHAD
41
PROFILE OF THE
LEADERSHIP TEAM
CAPTAIN LESLIE WU
Safety Director
Captain Wu obtained his commercial pilot
license from the US and Malaysia, and
started serving commercial airlines in 1992,
becoming a commercial jet captain five
years later, in 1997. At the end of 2004, he
became a Deputy Chief Pilot Training.Later,
Captain Wu spent several years based in
the Middle East, flying for Qatar Airways.
Upon returning to Malaysia in mid-2009, he
joined AirAsia X as Chief Pilot Flight Safety
andwassubsequentlymadeSafetyDirector
in 2012.As Safety Director, he is responsible
for implementing and maintaining the
Safety Management System for the entire
company. Nevertheless, he still puts on
his ‘wings’ to fly once or twice a month.
Captain Wu holds a Diploma in Safety
Management for Airlines and a Diploma in
Airline Quality System.
ARIK DE
Head of Commercial
Arik joined AirAsia X in January 2016
as Head of Commercial. He is tasked
with leading the commercial functions
of the airline including our Network,
Revenue, Marketing, Ancillary, and Sales &
Distribution.
Arik started his career at the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) as a young
economist. He subsequently acquired
over 16 years of experience in aviation
through work at WestJet in Canada, and
being part of two of the largest aviation
consulting firms - SH&E/ICF Aviation and
InterVistas. At WestJet, he led the network
and fleet planning team to grow a primarily
domestic airline into the largest non-US
airline in the Caribbean, Hawaii and prime
US leisure points of Las Vegas and Florida.
He was also instrumental in evaluating the
first code share partnerships, and being
part of the core team that studied and
introduced WestJet Encore, the regional
arm of WestJet.
In his consulting career,he was engaged in
over 100 consulting projects in commercial
aviation including that at LAN,Aero Mexico,
Singapore Airlines, Jeju, SpiceJet, Air India,
Gulf Air and Kuwait Airways. Most recently,
he was designated the Chief Commercial
Officer at TACV, the national airline of Cabo
Verde.
Arik, an avid traveller, holds a Master’s
in Finance and Public Policy from the
University of Chicago.
EDWARD CHIEN
Acting Financial Controller & Head of
Quality Assurance
Edward Chien joined AirAsia X Berhad as
Head of Quality Assurance in June 2015
and assumed the role of Acting Financial
controller in December 2015. He assists
the leadership in managing the finance
function with direct reporting to Chief
Financial Officer. Prior to AirAsia X, Edward
was a Director at PwCVietnam for five years
leading the Risk Consulting & Forensic
team. He brings 20 years of experience
acquired as a consultant and auditor
at PwC Malaysia, Group Operations Risk
Manager at a Malaysian bank, Deputy
Head of Programme Management at a
Malaysian satellite TV broadcaster, and
Chief Internal Auditor of a public listed
water treatment concessionaire.
Edward holds a Bachelor’s in Accounting
with honours from Universiti Utara Malaysia.
He is a member of the Malaysian Institute
of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA)
and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants
(MIA); and a Chartered Member of the
Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Malaysia.
SHARMIZAN ABDUL GHANI
Head of Engineering
Sharmizan joined AirAsia X as Head of
Engineering in 2015, but is no stranger to
the AirAsia Group having previously held
the post of Duty Engineer in AirAsia Berhad
from 2001-2007. His career in the aviation
industry began in 1995 as a Trainee Aircraft
Maintenance Engineer with Malaysia
Airlines. By mid-1999, he became a
Licensed Aircraft Engineer with a Boeing
737-400 rating and later obtained a Boeing
777-200 rating. After his tenure at AirAsia
Berhad, he left to join Jet Premier One as
an Avionics Duty Engineer in 2007 and was
thereafter promoted to Technical Services
Manager in 2009.
JURVENA LEE NIAN-CHEH
Head of Marketing
Jurvena joined AirAsia Berhad in 2011 as
a Marketing Manager and quickly moved
on to assume the position of Regional
Marketing Manager a year later. In 2015,
she was promoted to Head of Marketing
for AirAsia X within the commercial
department. Her responsibilities include
leading the team in stimulating travel
demand for AirAsia X and working closely
withpartners and tourismbodies toachieve
similar goals. Prior to her stint at AirAsia, she
was with one of the largest grocery retailers,
Tesco Stores (M), where she acquired six
years of marketing experience across a
range of portfolios including Advertising &
Promotions and Local & Stores Marketing.
Jurvena graduated with a Bachelor's
in Business from Auckland University of
Technology, New Zealand.
RAYMOND CHEONG
Head of Sales
Raymond joined AirAsia X Berhad in
January 2013 as our Sales and Distribution
Manager and was re-designated as
Head in 2015 with the key responsibility to
lead and drive the sales and distribution
of indirect channels, namely travel
agencies, general sales agents and
global distribution systems. He plays a key
role in market introduction campaigns
and setting up of offline trade distribution
channels in new destinations including
Adelaide, Chongqing, Xi’an, Narita,
Nagoya and Busan. He also played an
instrumental role in the distribution set-
up and market entry campaigns of Thai
AAX in Japan and Korea and Indonesia
AAX in Australia. Raymond is also part of
the AirAsia Group Regional Sales Team
managing and overseeing the Australia,
Japan and Korea offline channel sales for
all carriers within the AirAsia Group.
Raymond was previously attached to
AirAsia Berhad leading the corporate
sales team and eventually taking on
regional roles in overseeing the sales
and distribution channels and the set-
up of AirAsia Travel & Service Centres in
Indochina. He has more than 10 years’
management experience in global sales,
international
business
development,
regional distribution set-up and expansion
and key account management in the
