Breakfast with a High Flier

Lucky members of the Imperial College Alumni Association of Northern California (ICAANC) had a rare opportunity to meet with one of Imperial's most distinguished fellow graduates for a group discussion on 15 Nov 2005

Koh Boon Hwee, Chairman of Singapore Airlines and past Chair of Singapore Telecom, was in town and joined them for an informal breakfast. For those who were curious about the Asian technology scene or simply wanting to know how to run the world's most successful airline, this was a special treat!

During his four years at the helm of SIA, Koh led the airline through a number of crises affecting the aviation industry, including the 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S., the Bali bombing in 2002, the SARS epidemic in 2003, the entry of low cost and budget carriers in the region and most recently, the very high fuel prices. During this time, SIA maintained its loss free record and in the last financial year achieved record profits of close to $1.4 billion. The Northern Californian alumni got to hear some of the reasons behind this success, along with Koh's perspectives on the future of this challenging industry. Along the way, he shared some personal observations about the new Airbus 380, the first of which has just arrived in Singapore for checkout.

At Imperial Koh was awarded the Bramwell Medal along with a First in Mechanical Engineering. He went on to get a Harvard MBA and then spent 14 years at Hewlett Packard, both in the US and in his native Singapore. He has founded and run his own technology companies and advised dozens more. During the breakfast he commented on the challenges and opportunities of doing business in China and Vietnam, and shared some war stories from his 15 years as Chairman of Singapore Telecom, which he led through privatisation in the late 1980s.

Koh is widely recognised as both a visionary thinker and a superb operational manager, attributes that came through in his brief but insightful comments on a wide variety of business issues. Everyone there picked up a useful tip or two, and agreed it was time very well spent.

View photos from the event
 
Contributor: Dick Watts