Tony Fernandes CEO Blog

I read the text message I received late Saturday night with a heavy heart. My dear friend Yasmin Ahmad had passed away after 2 days of being in the intensive care unit at the Damansara Specialist Hospital. Few individuals have had such a profound effect on the Malaysian film and advertising industry, and news of her death spawned hundreds of tributes across the internet.

This post is my humble tribute to her.

The first time I met her was at a photo shoot for a campaign we were both selected for. I didn't talk to her as I was a bit awe struck. The first real meeting we had was when Margaret Au Yong brought me to Leo Burnett to meet her. I had just won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and Yasmin was going to do a video for me. Within barely 5 minutes of meeting her, Yasmin seemed to know everything about me and we were talking like we had known each other for years.

I think this was part of the reason Yasmin was such a celebrated director and an equally great friend - she was blessed with the gift of making people feel comfortable enough to spill their hearts out to her.

Our relationship developed over the years and she became very much part of the AirAsia family. Soon you will see her latest commercial that she did for us on air around the region.

When I was nominated to the 1Malaysia board of trustees a few weeks ago, I was asked to recommend another person to sit on the board as a trustee and immediately suggested Yasmin. I think she truly embodied the spirit of 1Malaysia, and while this term has only just come about recently, Yasmin has in fact been propagating this very creed of racial unity through her commercials for many, many years now. I will miss her positive energy so much but most of all, I’ll miss the purity of her heart and the total colour blindness in everything that she did. You are clearly one of Malaysia’s finest, and your spirit will live on in Malaysia forever.

My deepest condolences go out to her husband and family. Farewell, Storyteller.