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FireFlyz | 31
When asked about his favourite des-
tinations, Ong unhesitatingly replied
with his two favourite stops: “Locally?
Definitely Penang and Malacca!”
Surely, it has all to do with food, I
queried.
The self-confessed foodie could only
laugh and heartily responded in the af-
firmative.
“My favourites in Penang are the
Char
Kuay Teow
at Lorong Selamat, PrawnNoo-
In the cosy Firefly Headquarters in
Subang, I entered what seems to be a
corporate boardroom with a massive,
solid-looking mahogany table with an
accompanying exquisite, wooden desk
by its side, which I presumed, was his.
It then hit me that his office doubled as
a boardroom, which I felt speaks quite a
bit about the inclusive, family-oriented
culture at Firefly Airlines.
I started by asking Ong to tell me more
about his background. His formative years
were actually spent in Ipoh, where his
father was relocated to fromKuala Lumpur
when Ong was three, up until he was 10
years of age, and then moved back to KL
and has remained there since.
Ong said: “From the age of 10 up to my
college years in KDU (Kolej Damansara
Utama), I was with the Bukit Bintang
Boys School, after which I did a twinning
degree withMiddlesex University that saw
me leave for London for my final year.”
So it is no surprise that this go-
getter found himself joining Pacific Bank
(acquired by Maybank in 2001) in the
credit department after graduation. He
subsequently moved on to corporate
banking, and left after a four-year stint.
After Pacific Bank, he found himself in
Andersen Consulting (now known as
Accenture), executing many projects in
the financial services sector.
“I was pretty much based outside of
Malaysia in places like Singapore and
Mauritius during my time with Accenture.
My final banking stint was with United
Overseas Bank (UOB), after which I came
back toMalaysia as I was offered a position
with Malaysian Airlines (MAS), parent
company of Firefly Airlines.”
Being the CEO of an airline, it would be
inconceivable for Ong to hate travelling.
On this matter he quipped: “I love travel-
ling, though in an ironic twist of fate, I
am not able to travel often enough since I
joined the airline industry!”
“I’ve been with MAS for 10 years now.
Most of my travelling days were when I
was with Accenture. I do travel a fair bit
with MAS due to work matters.”
He admits that it is increasingly difficult
to find time for leisure travel these days.
The last couple of years were especially
challenging, partly because his wife was
pregnant with twins; but whenever pos-
sible, he would try to find the time to
travel, be it locally or within the ASEAN
region.
dles and other hawker food. In Malacca, I
enjoy food near the Portuguese settlement
area. I really love simple hawker fare.”
If you aren’t convinced that Ong (or,
‘IO’ as the Firefly crew fondly refer to him)
is a down-to-earth person, that should
pretty much suffice to convince you.
Since we were on the topic of food,
we decided to grill Ong further on his
favourite hotspots – this time the ones in
Klang Valley.