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CEOs
DENDY KURNIAWAN
Dendy Kurniawan (Male), aged 44, joined AirAsia as the Chief
Financial Officer of AirAsia X Indonesia in May 2014.
He was promoted to AirAsia X Indonesia Chief Executive Officer
in December 2014 and took Indonesia’s first long-haul low-cost
airline to its first flight to Taipei in January 2015.
In September 2016, Dendy was appointed as AirAsia Group
Chief Executive Officer for Indonesia operations to oversee the
growth and development of both AirAsia Indonesia and AirAsia
X Indonesia. In addition to his responsibilities as Group Chief
Executive Officer for Indonesia, Dendy also serves as the Chief
Executive Officer of AirAsia Indonesia.
Dendy is a Fulbright Scholar, granted to pursue a Master of Arts
in International & Development Economics at Yale University,
USA, following a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from
Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in Indonesia. While at university,
he contributed analytical essays on economics and finance to
several major Indonesian publications.
Dendy’s professional life started at the age of 23, when he was
appointed project manager of one of Indonesia’s state-owned
trading banks, and took part in Indonesia’s Economic Recovery
Acceleration task force team as a monitoring expert. In 2000, he
was entrusted to serve as the Chief of Staff of a Special Advisory
Team to Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs
before serving as an Expert Staff in a Special Advisory Team to
the Indonesian Minister of Finance in 2001.
He moved to the private sector with the appointment as a
Commissioner of PT Indomobil Sukses International, a major
Japanese automobile brand dealer in Indonesia. He was
subsequently offered the post of President Director at PT
Indokapital Securities, and then Managing Director of Infinite
Capital, and Chairman of Quant Capital Management. In 2009, the
Indonesian Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises appointed him
as Finance Director at state-owned energy company PT Geo Dipa
Energi (Persero), which he helped to turn around before joining
AirAsia.
CAPTAIN DEXTER M COMENDADOR
Captain Dexter M Comendador (Male), aged 57, has over 33 years
of experience in the aviation industry, serving as a combat pilot,
flight commander and pilot instructor in the Philippine Air Force
for eight years before beginning his professional career as a
commercial pilot in 1992.
A trailblazer and highly-decorated pilot, Captain Comendador is
a cum laude graduate of the Philippine Military Academy and a
recipient of 26 service medals, including two Gold Crosses for
bravery and successful combat operations. In 1994, while serving
as a flight systems engineer with a commercial airline, his crew
successfully managed an inflight bomb explosion earning them
commendations from then-Philippine President Fidel Ramos and
inspiring stories of bravery, courage and professionalism in the
international media.
Captain Comendador opted for early retirement in 2010 while
serving as a chief pilot for safety and compliance at a local budget
airline. Airlines and airplanes, however, are truly his first love
and, after a short break, he took on a job overseas with a foreign
airline before joining the newly launched AirAsia operations in
the Philippines as Chief Pilot for Operations in December 2011.
Two years later, he was promoted to Director of Flight Operations
and Chief Operating Officer. He accepted the challenge to lead
the Philippine team of AirAsia as interim Chief Executive Officer in
July 2016, at a time when the airline was embarking on plans to
expand its network to include several new routes from secondary
hubs providing connectivity throughout Asean.
He was officially appointed Chief Executive Officer in January
2017, earning him another title as the “first flying pilot-CEO of an
airline in the Philippines”.
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AirAsia Group Berhad
LEADERSHIP
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