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.
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All persons named in this document are ctitious
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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.
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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.
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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
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