theceomagazine.com | 67Yo u
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CEO of Philippines AirAsia Dexter
Comendador learned how to look after
people during his time in the Air Force.WORDS OLIVER FEATHERSTON • IMAGES DEXTER COMENDADORB
efore he was President and CEO of AirAsia’s Philippine branch, Dexter
Comendador was a fighter pilot in the Philippine Air Force. This, surprisingly,
came in handy when Philippines AirAsia merged with Zest Airways in 2015.
“Starting a company from scratch is easier than trying to meld two very
different cultures,” he says. “But I got used to doing that in the military
because the unit I got assigned to was a combat unit. It was like that TV
show, Baa Baa Black Sheep, which was about this newly created unit that the US Air Force
assigned to Diego Garcia to block the Japanese advance. In this show, and in the military,
when you create a new unit, you ask for people from different existing units and, normally,
the commander of those units will give you the worst. They’ll try to clean up their own
backyard and throw the crazy ones out. That’s the kind of place I was last assigned to in
the Air Force, so I knew how to handle the crazy guys with guns. I just applied the same
principles in trying to deal with the merger.”
It’s common for military pilots to transition to civilian aviation later in their career,
but it’s not as common for them to wind up as CEO. Dexter has, however, served »Interview | INSPIRE