Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes is a Malaysian entrepreneur and the founder of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd., who introduced the first budget no-frills airline, AirAsia, to Malaysians with the tagline "Now everyone can fly".
Tony was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1964 to an Indian Goa father and Malacca Portuguese mother. His father was a communist doctor while his mother is a business women. When he was young he used to follow his mother a business women in selling Tupperware around Malaysia. He was educated at The Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur, Epsom College from 1977 to 1983, and then at the London School of Economics. He worked very briefly with Virgin Atlantic as an auditor, subsequently becoming the financial controller for Richard Branson's Virgin Records in London from 1987 to 1989.
Tony was admitted as Associate Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in 1991 and became Fellow Member in 1996. He is currently a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
Upon his return to Malaysia, he became the youngest managing director of Warner Music (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. As well as being an accountant, Fernandes is anamateur guitarist and also has achieved grade 8 piano.
He subsequently became the South East Asian regional vice-president for Warner Music Group from 1992-2001. When Time Warner Inc announced its merger with America Online Inc, Fernandes left to pursue his dream of starting a budget no-frills airline.
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