Org Chart: The C-suites powering Capital A

Org Chart maps out the people at the top of Asia’s most prominent tech companies. Who are the key decision-makers? How are the teams organized? What does it tell us about the company’s priorities? We continue this series with Malaysian diversified group Capital A.

Capital A was born out of necessity. The global aviation industry ground to a halt amid Covid-19 as pandemic-induced measures clipped the wings of major airlines, including AirAsia.

In 2020, the Kuala Lumpur-based budget airline had to let go off staff, seek government aid, and restructure its debt to survive.

But the most important move by Tony Fernandes, AirAsia’s co-founder and CEO, was to change the company’s name to Capital A, marking its diversification into tech.

The pivot was easy: AirAsia already had a tech arm that managed its digital services, including its website. Scaling up involved reorganization at the group level, which Fernandes executed. With shareholders support, Capital A was born on March 13 this year and its new ticker went up on the Bursa Malaysia stock exchange.

The group’s structure has been simplified into two main arms: aviation (AirAsia) and digital (AirAsia Digital).

Major responsibilities have been assigned to Fernandes’ three generals or presidents: Tharumalingam Kanagalingam (aviation), Aireen Omar (digital), and Collin Currie (digital business).

Among the three, Aireen and Tharumalingam have worked with Fernandes the longest. Aireen joined AirAsia in 2006 after a three-year stint at New York’s Deutsche Bank as her first job.

Tharumalingam, meanwhile, worked at EMI Music Malaysia and Warner Music Malaysia before joining AirAsia as ground operations manager in 2001, the year the firm was founded.

Currie joined AirAsia in 2021 after working as the managing director for Adidas Group’s Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Greater China businesses from 2005 onwards. Before this, he was Sony Music Entertainment Malaysia’s managing director from 2003 to 2005.

When Capital A was known as AirAsia Group, many of its tech businesses such as Airasia.com were grouped under the airline arm. But after restructuring the group into Capital A, there’s a clear division between aviation, tech, and other services.

Tharumalingam and Currie have similar backgrounds as Fernandes: All three have worked in the music business. Prior to founding AirAsia, Fernandes was vice-president at Warner Music Southeast Asia, which he left after it announced its merger with America Online in 2001.

Aireen heads AirAsia Digital, focusing on the ventures such as AirAsia Super App and Teleport, while Currie handles the digital aspects of the business, from communications to marketing.