Malaysian Aviation Group names new global head of marketing for its airlines

The Malaysian Aviation Group (MAG) has named Emily Tan as its new head of global airlines marketing for Malaysia Airlines, Firefly and Maswings, according to an internal memo seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. The memo was written by the group's chief commercial officer, Dersenish Aresandiran, who Tan will be reporting to. 

Tan will be replacing Wai Kuan Wong who was head, airlines global marketing at Malaysia Airlines previously. Wong spent just over four years at the company, starting out as global head of marketing in 2019.

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Tan joins the role with extensive experience in the marketing sector as well as in the travel industry. Before her stint at MAG, Tan was head of marketing at ShopBack in Malaysia, a role she held for just over two years. Prior to that, Tan was the associate marketing director at Klook Travel where she grew the marketing team from ground-up and led user acquisition and revenue growth for the brand in the market, according to her LinkedIn page. 

This is also not Tan's first foray into the aviation industry. In 2014, Tan joined AirAsia as its product manager, group ancillary. She quickly climbed the ladder and in 2016, made the role of senior marketing manager. In her role, she was responsible for the achievement of revenue targets and marketing objectives of nine AirAsia X markets across the APAC region by driving alignment on strategic priorities, marketing plans and partnerships. Tan has also worked in Maxis and KPMG Malaysia in her career. 

In tandem, MAG has also named Dharma Dave as its new head network scheduling and charter. Dave specialises in process automation, crisis management and innovation in-flight scheduling. His extensive experience in the industry includes stints at Scoot, Malindo and AirAsia. He will also report to Dersenish, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE understands. 

The news comes shortly after it was revealed that the parent company of AirAsia, Capital A, will be entering into a non-binding letter of offer with AirAsia X Berhad (AAX) for the proposed disposal of its aviation business, namely AirAsia and AirAsia Aviation Group Limited.

The move is aimed at streamlining the group and facilitating a business-centric valuation of the separate entities, potentially unlocking greater value for shareholders, it said in a statement. 

“All businesses across Capital A have been thriving and we are ready to grow. We need to raise funds for business expansion, but gaining access to capital has been challenging due to Capital A’s Practice Note 17 (PN17) status," said Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A. "We have been engaging committed investors who have expressed a strong preference for a pure aviation play," he added. 

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