Dato’ Seri Bashir Ahmad

Managing Director, Malaysia Airports

Dato’ Seri Bashir Ahmad, aged 58 and a Malaysian is the Managing Director and CEO of Malaysia Airports since June 2003. Malaysia Airports is a public listed company and operates KL International Airport and 38 other airports in Malaysia.

Dato’ Seri Bashir is a graduate of University Malaya with a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Honours) majoring in International Relations. He started his career with Malaysia Airlines (“MAS”), the National carrier of Malaysia. He has held various senior positions in Malaysia Airlines during the 29 years of service in the said organization. He started as a Management trainee in 1972 and rose up to the position of sales manager and marketing manager by 1982. He was promoted to the position of International Relations Manager in 1982 and rose up the ranks to become Deputy Director of International Relations in 1991. In that capacity his primary function was to acquire traffic rights for the expansion of MAS network to 79 destinations.

He became the Director of Corporate Planning in 1992 and was the Senior Vice-President of Commercial until 1997. He was then appointed as the Executive Vice-President of the airline. As the Executive Vice-President he was responsible for the achievement of airline revenue budget and operational efficiency, covering the areas of planning, marketing, distribution, flight operations and cabin crew, customer services and ground operations.

Dato’ Seri Bashir was appointed as the Aviation Advisor of the Ministry of Transport Malaysia in 2001 and he held the position until he became the Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad in 2003.

As the CEO in Malaysia Airports, he sets the direction of the company and manages the overall performance of the company which includes the airports and several aviation as well as non-aviation related subsidiaries, such as the hotel and plantation subsidiaries. Apart from the Malaysia Airports Main Board, Dato’ Seri Bashir Ahmad also sits on the Board of Finance and Investment Committee, Board Risk Management Committee and Board Planning and Development Committee of MAHB as well as some of the subsidiary Boards.

Dato’ Seri Bashir, in his course of work has been a member of Industry Affairs Committee of IATA, Committee member of Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, Board member of ASEAN Tourism Association, member of British/Malaysia Business Council, Board member of Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board and Vice president of Malaysian Hockey Federation. He sits in the Asia-Pacific ACI (Airports Council International) Board and the World Governing Board of ACI.

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