SEAL Top Team Bio Briefs 1. Brian Smith1 - CEO Brian is due to retire December, 2024. He has had a remarkable 31 year career in aviation. He successfully make the switch from a career as a pilot into management at European Airways (EA), and was part of the original training and management team that came to SEAL when EA took a 30% stake in South East Asialand Airways (SEAA) in 1992. Over the years Brian has held a number of signi cant management positions in South East Airways Limited (SEAL), resulting eventually in him taking up the top job as CEO, in January 2016. In the rst year under Brian’s leadership SEAL posted a small pro t, but subsequent years saw a continued deterioration in overall company performance due to erce regional and international competition; complications resulting from the disastrous aircraft acquisition strategy his predecessor embarked on, and a global pandemic. Internal issues that he has yet to effectively deal with are a growing number of allegations of corruption and overall staff dissatisfaction, particular in the last three years as the company laid off staff to reduce operating costs during the pandemic. While Brian is highly regarded by all who know him, he has been unable to get on top of the issues that are adversely affecting overall company performance and brand. Brian has a BA in Engineering. 2. Jill Ngoc - Human Resources Director Jill started her career in SEAL as a young secretary in 2001 in the Operations Department. Three years later in 2004 she assumed a position as a Personal Assistant (PA) for the Operations Director. Four years later her reputation as someone who “gets the job done” saw her promoted to Personal Assistant to the CEO. In 2014 Jill made a major career change when the CEO suggested “Jill would make a good HR person”. She subsequently was moved into the HR Department as the Assistant to the HR Director. The then HR Director encouraged Jill to “learn HR” by rotating her around payroll, recruitment, training and development, and staff planning. In 2017 Jill took over the role of HRD when her predecessor retired. Jill has a reasonable working relationship with most of the senior management team though there are times when she and Akhil Singh have disagreed openly over how best to address the allegations of corruption within the organisation, and budget allocation. Jill has felt cut backs to her training budget over the past 5 years, and more recently, signi cant staff layoffs called for during the pandemic, are all part of Akhil’s efforts to reduce overall company expenditure, which she thinks this is grossly unfair. Jill was quite vocal in saying the company could have supported staff more during the pandemic and kept them in their jobs, even if on a reduced income, as many have been very loyal to company for many years themselves. Four years ago Jill and Lucy Lok, the Operations Director, had major disagreements when Lucy complained that some of the newer HR initiatives that Jill was rolling out at time in the Operations Department (Mindfulness Training, and The Company Culture Training Programme) were not relevant and a waste of time. Jill has a diploma in HRM and is currently attempting to do a BA in Management by distance learning. 1 All persons named in this document are ctitious fi fi fi ffi fi fi fi www.theglobalheado ce.com 1 3. Akhil Singh - Chief Financial O cer Akhil joined SEAL at the same time as Brian Smith in 1992. He has always worked in the Finance Department. He worked for many years as the Financial Controller, and became the Chief Finance Of cer 2009 after his predecessor was red for the disastrous acquisition strategy that was pursued at the time. Akhil is a no-nonsense type of business leader. He is very particular about “attention to detail”, demanding that any information submitted to him is to be “absolutely accurate and correct”. He is known as a “no nonsense” type of executive, and often he’s been known to argue with people over what many people feel are “irrelevant issues”. He is known to challenge people openly in meetings and even at times to belittle someone if he feels what they are presenting is incorrect. Akhil has few friends inside SEAL, apart from Brian, and though Akhil is 100% committed to the company, he largely works in isolation from the other directors. Akhil has a BA in Finance, and completed his MBA by distance learning in 2008. 4. Ken Chan - Investment & IT Director Ken it's not your usual IT director. He started his career in Investment Banking and transitioned into IT when he became a major investor in an IT services start up back in 2005. Overtime Ken became more involved in the day-to-day management of IT services. He was eventually brought into SEAL fulltime to oversee the growth and development of the IT systems within the SEAL in 2014 as a result of the consultancy services that were provided up to that time by his IT services company. It was only in 2019 that he took on the additional role of SEAL’s Investment and Business Development Director, largely due to the recognition by the board for the company to nd new income streams to offset the devastating impact of the pandemic which was negatively impacting on SEAL’s overall nancial performance. As a cost saving measure, Ken continued in his role as the IT Director, though he had much less time to give himself fully to the needs of the department due to the new role. Ken is a very “hands off" type of leader. He now tends to delegate the day-to-day operational side of IT to his subordinates to handle, while he concentrates more on “strategic issues” of “investment and new business development”. He is seldom seen in the of ce as he has in more recent times been meeting suppliers and different consultants trying to nd and analyse new business opportunities at have some form of synergy with the airline industry. Criticisms have been circulating that Ken is spending too much time looking into “novel” capital investment opportunities rather than working closely with department heads to identify new income streams that take advantage of the assets and competencies already in the business. One example was an initiative that Khan the Flight Operations Director, and Lucy the Operations Director, developed and implemented was the conversion of planes to carry more freight in the cabin area once passenger capacity needs dropped by around 70% due to travel restrictions. Ken had no part in this initiative. Ken has a BA in Modern Literature, and an MA in Investment Banking. 2 fi fi fi fi fi ffi ffi fi www.theglobalheado ce.com 5. Khan Iman - Flight Operations Director Khan became a pilot after graduating from university and ight training school in 2003. He rose through the ranks to become one of the youngest chief pilots in Asia when he took over the role as Flight Operations Director in 2016. He is highly respected by his colleagues due to his exemplary career as a pilot, and due to the natural way he mentors and encourages other younger pilots as they come through the ranks. He works tirelessly to ensure safety is maintained as number one priority in the airline; and he has also worked closely with HR to try and improve the demanding rostering and work schedules that are currently in place thanks to the signi cantly reduce head count due to the pandemic. Khan has also worked hard to keep staff where he can, or to nd alternative roles in the company for those that Akhil, the Chief Financial Of cer, is demanding “must be let go”. Khan understands ways to reduce overheads due to the terrible impact the pandemic must be found, but his belief that “every problem has its own solution within it” means, if possible, there has to be other solutions other than “ ring people” to save costs. As expected, the impact of staff cost cutting activities has result in signi cant staff dissatisfaction for those who have remained. Khan is known by his colleagues to be very professional and loyal to SEAL, though rumours have been circulating that now airlines are beginning to see a return to normalcy across most continents, that he has recently been approached by a search rm for a role with a competitor. Khan has a BA in Aviation 6. Lucy Lok - Operations Director Lucy began her career with SEAA as a management trainee. When SEAA was merged into SEAL in 1992 she was placed in the sales and marketing division as a frontline manager and rose through the management ranks to eventually assume the role of Sales and Marketing Director, a position she held up to her retirement in January 2019. At the same time she retired, the then Operations Director, David Hui, went on unpaid sick leave so Lucy was asked if she would assume a temporary position as Acting Operations Director while David was receiving treatment for his illness. However, just two months into her new Acting Operations Director role, David tendered his resignation due to further deterioration in his health. The decision to begin a search for a permanent replacement was put on hold during the pandemic. However, a month ago, Jill the HRD was asked by Brian the CEO to start a search for a new permanent Operations Director. Lucy will relinquish her acting department head role once a replacement is found. Lucy has a MSc in Marketing 7. May Lee - Sales and Marketing Director May became the Sales and Marketing Director when her predecessor, Lucy Lok, retired from the position in January 2019. May was recruited from a competitor airline for the role as at the time there were no suitable internal candidates to assume the position. Her move into the new role could not have come at a worse time thanks to the devastating impact of pandemic lockdowns and the closure of international boarders. fi fi fl fi fi fi fi ffi www.theglobalheado ce.com 3 Fortunately for her, and thanks to a watertight employment contract she negotiated just prior to the pandemic that guaranteed her a minimum of 5 years income plus signi cant annual bonus payments as a sign on incentive for her to leave her previous employer, May has never had to worry about job security. However, being the professional she is, which is why she was recruited, she successfully refocused her sales team to support the new freight carrying capability; and reasonably recently she was been most successful in promoting “in country” holiday destination packages now that lockdown restrictions have been eased. Her team’s efforts in both these areas have made signi cant positive contributions to the overall nancial performance of the company. One outstanding issue that May has yet to adequately addressed, made by Akhil, is to investigate allegations of kick back payments that some of her sales reps are rumoured to be taking from some holiday resorts and package tour groups operators. May claims preliminary investigations by one of her senior managers into the allegations found no evidence to support the claims of corruption. Akhil has rejected the preliminary report saying the task should not have be delegated to someone else, and insists May should take personal responsibility to investigate the claims herself. Due to numerous other pressures that May is currently dealing with, she has not yet found the time to conduct an indepth investigation into the allegations. May has a BA (hon) in Marketing, and an MSc in International Business 4 fi fi fi ffi www.theglobalheado ce.com
