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Cathay chief gets firm grounding from career in Swire

Over the past 14 years, the DHL/SCMP Hong Kong Business Awards have recognised excellence under the categories: Business Person of the Year, Executive Award, Owner-Operator Award, Young Entrepreneur Award, International Award and Enterprise Award. Ahead of the presentation for this year's winners on December 2, every Monday we will speak to one of last year's winners and see how each has fared in the past 12 months.

For the past eight years, Cathay Pacific Airways chief David Turnbull has navigated the airline through some of its most turbulent times - the Asian crisis, moving from Kai Tak to Chek Lap Kok, industrial disputes, the fallout from September 11 and the Sars epidemic.

So Mr Turnbull - who won last year's Executive Award - was hoping for some respite this year. 'We thought this year we might have a quiet year. Of course now we have been hit by a huge fuel price.'

The airline has been helped through each crisis by what he describes as the firm's conservative management.

'Have money in the bank for a rainy day - that's the way we operate,' Mr Turnbull said.

'It's not very fashionable with business school - gear up, get return on equity blah, blah, blah. But actually it's a better way to run a company, I think.'

Such an approach ensured no staff had to be laid off during Sars last year when Cathay even considered grounding the entire fleet.

At the end of this year Mr Turnbull will become chairman of both Cathay and Swire Pacific. Asked what qualities a chief executive of Cathay needed, Mr Turnbull was quick to praise his colleagues.

'We have in our company, I would think, a dozen people who could do my job tomorrow morning. I don't know what the qualities are but, whatever they are, we have got them.'

For Mr Turnbull, the worst time as chief executive was the industrial disputes.

'I hated that actually. It was upsetting for all of us, everybody - not just the pilots and me, everybody. It was nasty and it made people turn against each other a bit. But I don't think it will happen again,' he said.

Mr Turnbull joined Cathay in 1976 after graduating from Cambridge University. In 1985, he moved into the shipping arm of Swire - the largest shareholder in Cathay - as managing director of New Guinea Australia Line in Sydney. He became managing director of Swire's aircraft maintenance arm Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co (Haeco) in 1990. He became chairman of Haeco in 1995 and Cathay chief executive in 1998.

Mr Turnbull recommends graduates apply to the Swire group for work even though other jobs may command higher salaries.

'I could not recommend more highly coming to work for a company like the Swire family who treat people so decently,' he said. 'You can go and work for a merchant bank, get paid five times as much but you'll have a horrible time.'

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