Picture this: You’ve had a stressful week at work, so you take up a colleague’s suggestion to whip your top off and get a massage during the management meeting—and then post a snap of the indulgent moment on LinkedIn. The scenario sounds almost too bizarre to be true, but it’s exactly what AirAsia’s CEO Tony Fernandes did last October—and he has zero regrets.
“Do I regret it? No,” Fernandes told CNBC. “Got me a lot of publicity.”
Indeed the post went viral—with a generous share of backlash. But in Fernandes’s eyes, the controversial post simply illustrates the flexibility within the Malaysian airline’s work culture.
“Initially I asked whether we could delay the meeting so that I could have a massage, I was in a lot of pain from a lot of flying. But the team said, we’re okay, you know, nothing to hide. We’d rather not delay it,” Fernandes added.
“So I was actually posting to say, what an amazing culture we have.”
If you didn’t get that vibe from the post, then it’s because “the message got twisted,” he said.
“I am transparent, and social media allows me to be very transparent. It has a disadvantage that people will misrepresent and misunderstand Tony Fernandes the persona.”
Fortune has contacted AirAsia for comment.
‘Appropriate is whatever people around you deem appropriate’
Although Fernandes says he doesn’t regret the post, he had somewhat of a guilty conscience in the aftermath and swiftly took it down.
“You can never really explain the thought process behind a post, so I deleted it,” he previously explained to Bloomberg. “I didn’t mean to offend anyone.”
At the time, the post garnered a negative reaction with hundreds of people outlining why it’s inappropriate for an executive to attend a meeting bare-chested.
“I don’t think the women in your company would feel comfortable or safe in this context, and given you’re the boss, they likely won’t challenge you or say anything,” commented Rebecca Nadillo, a strategy and branding executive.
But Fernandes thinks that what is—or rather, isn’t—suitable behavior from bosses isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
“Appropriate is whatever people around you deem appropriate, right? I could have had a meeting on the beach with Richard Branson and my management staff, and everyone would have said, how cool is that?” Fernandes told CNBC.
“You can’t have a more diverse airline such as ours, our top management is mostly women… We have such a flat, fun, transparent, direct culture.”
Who is this unfiltered CEO?
The Malaysian businessman bought AirAsia for a single ringgit (just 20 cents) in 2001—at the time, it had just two planes. Today, the low-cost airline is worth around 20 billion ringgit (over $4 billion) and Fernandes’s net worth (currently, $335 million) and notoriety, has grown with it.
The multimillionaire has become known as the Richard Branson of Asia for his flamboyant persona and entrepreneurial spirit. As well as taking his shot in the airline industry, Fernandes has hedged his bet in the sports world: He owned the English soccer club Queens Park Rangers until last year, and the Formula 1 Team Caterham until 2014.
What’s more, the controversial LinkedIn post is nothing new for the CEO who has an unfiltered approach to social media.
When he had Twitter (he deleted his account on the platform now called X in 2020), he would post several times a day about the airline—including following the disappearance of Flight MH370 in March 2014 and when an AirAsia plane crashed later that year.
“As I have said we never hide,” he wrote in one tweet. “All will come out at right time.”
Most recently, Fernandes made headlines for posting on Instagram that he had to travel on Singapore Airlines because his own planes were sold out—and of course, people didn’t buy it.
“Don’t lie Tony. Even you don’t wanna fly AirAsia,” one user commented.
Whether or not all publicity is good publicity, Fernandes won’t be hiring a social media manager anytime soon. He told CNBC that he does not get his posts vetted by his PR team and he wants to keep it that way.
