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| Tan Sri Tony Fernandes was conferred an Honorary Degree of Science, Honoris Causa by Cranfield University |
AirAsia Group Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Tony
Fernandes was conferred an Honorary Degree of Science, Honoris Causa by
Cranfield University in the United Kingdom at its graduation celebration held
on 29 June 2018.
Fernandes was among the three leaders from
the world of business who were honoured by Cranfield University, together with
Paul Stein, Chief Technology Officer at Rolls-Royce and former Director General
at the Ministry of Defence; and Martin Bromiley, OBE, founder and chair of the
Clinical Human Factors Group charity.
Receiving his degree, Fernandes said: “It’s
a great privilege to be awarded this honorary degree by Cranfield, an
institution so deeply intertwined with British aviation history and which has such
a storied past. With its strong focus on practical application, Cranfield has
been a leading light in aeronautics and management since its founding more than
seven decades ago. The university is also equipped with an Aerospace
Integration Research Centre (AIRC) and is the only university in Europe that
brings together major aerospace research facilities such as the AIRC, an
operational airport and runway on one connected site. I am deeply thankful for
this recognition.”
Professor Sir Peter Gregson, Chief Executive
and Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University, said: “I’m delighted that we are
able to honour Tony, Paul and Martin today. As leaders in their fields they
have achieved great things in aviation, aerospace and human factors,
respectively. It is fantastic to welcome them at Cranfield today to join in
with our celebrations.”
This is the fifth honorary degree that
Fernandes has received over the course of his career.
Tan Sri Tony Fernandes is one of Asia’s most
recognisable entrepreneurs and the co-founder of AirAsia, the world’s best
low-cost airline. 16 years ago, Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin bought the ailing
AirAsia airline for a token of 1 Malaysian ringgit and started with just 2
planes and 200 Allstars in Malaysia. To date, AirAsia has flown over 500
million guests to over 130 destinations with a fleet of more than 200 planes
and 20,000 Allstars of 50 different nationalities.
Cranfield is an exclusively postgraduate
university that is a global leader for education and transformational research
in technology and management.
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