Malaysia Airlines (MAS) yesterday announced major changes to top management personnel for the new year amid talk of domestic probes being carried out on key personnel of the national carrier. Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd (MASkargo) managing director Shahari Sulaiman, MAS head of commercial strategy Datuk Dr Amin Khan, Malaysia Aerospace Engineering's (MAE) chief executive officer (CEO) Mohd Roslan Ismail and revenue management head Datin Sharifah Salwa Syed Kamaruddin are all leaving. No reason was given for their departure. Early this month, Business Times reported that MASkargo's Shahari was on leave of absence amid a domestic inquiry on him. The national carrier had then neither confirmed nor denied the report, saying that Shahari was on leave. It is understood, however, that his services had in fact been terminated early this month. It is unclear if Amin, Mohd Roslan and Sharifah's departure was also the result of domestic inquiries. In a statement issued last evening, MAS glossed over the departure of these key members of the previous management, announcing replacements for two of the vacated positions. The carrier announced two appointments namely Hugh Dunleavy as head of network, alliance, strategy and planning, and Shihaj Kutty to lead revenue management. Dunleavy has more than 30 years experience in the aviation industry in particular in the area of strategy and planning, revenue/yield management and airline alliances among others. His employers included Canada's WestJet Airlines and Lufthansa Systems. Shihaj, with 15 years of experience in the industry, joins MAS from Etihad Airways where he was head of pricing. Replacements for other positions vacated were not announced. The new management structure will see customer experience, operations, human capital, and network, alliance, strategy and planning reporting directly to group CEO Ahmad Jauhari, who also takes charge of long-haul operations. Mohammed Rashdan, in his capacity as deputy group CEO and CEO of short-haul, will lead the operations of short-haul, group finance, aircraft finance and management, and in the interim, helm commercial. Ahmad Jauhari said the organisation structure signals a new era for MAS group that will further build pride of its employees and confidence for its customers and stakeholders. It also involves the setting up of several new business units and the re-naming of existing functions as well as the introduction of new leaders to take over from familiar faces, who have decided to pursue other career opportunities.
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