Budiey
Tony Fernandes in FastCompany.com’s ’10 Most Creative People on Twitter’ list
KUALA LUMPUR, 9 JUNE 2011 – Having recently been named as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2011 by New York-based business magazine Fast Company (June 2011 edition), AirAsia Group CEO, Tune Group Co-Founder and Team Lotus Principal Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Tony Fernandes CBE has now been recognised as one of ‘The 10 Most Creative People on Twitter’ by the magazine’s online edition, FastCompany.com.
Tony is ranked at No. 6 ahead of Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group (No.9) and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (No. 10). Leading the ’10 Most Creative People on Twitter’ list is American Idol Host and radio personality, Ryan Seacrest. Also on the list is Late Night Talk Show Host, Conan O’ Brien, who is ranked at No. 3.
Describing Tony, Fast Company said “Tony Fernandes’s businesses have a simple mission – to serve the underserved. Since 2001, the Malaysian entrepreneur’s budget airline AirAsia has flown more than 100 million passengers – many of whom couldn’t afford the continent’s legacy carriers – to destinations from Paris to Phnom Penh. Fernandes is using AirAsia’s web traffic to jump-start a fleet of follow-ups: Tune Hotels (“Five-star beds at one-star prices”), Tune Talk (cell phones), Tune Money (insurance, prepaid Visa cards), and Tune Tone (movies and music).”
Tony says, “I feel very honoured to be in the top ten list, especially being the only Malaysian and South East Asian to be given such recognition. This reflects the creative, innovative and imaginative traits of the people I work and engage with at AirAsia, Tune Group and Team Lotus in exploiting technology to be in the forefront of competition.”
Known for his personal credo “Dream the Impossible, Believe the Unbelievable and Never Take No for an Answer”, Tony believes in providing opportunities throughout his businesses for talent to flourish, for meritocracy to reign and for people to realise their dreams.
Having democratised air travel by freeing it from the clutches of the elite, the AirAsia boss is determined to break down the affordability barrier in other aspects of daily life – hence Tune Hotels, Tune Money and Tune Talk, the radical Team Lotus approach to F1 – and the Epsom College campus in Malaysia.
