AirAsia Finance Chief is Aviation CFO of the Year for Southeast Asia

MANILA, 10 November 2020- Philippines AirAsia's Finance Officer Chief Ray Berja has won the best Aviation Chief Financial Officer (CFO) award at the Global CFO Excellence Awards 2020. 

Acquisition International, the organization behind the “CFO Excellence Awards” recognizes strong, dynamic, and visionary CFO’s across the globe annually.

This is Berja’s second win in a row, following his winning of the Fintech CFO award in 2019.

Berja’s innovative ideas in the midst of the ongoing pandemic were recognized for significantly translating into recovery efforts, which keep the country’s best low-cost carrier well alive and still thriving.

AirAsia CEO Ricky Isla said, “We’re very proud of Ray’s recent win. This prestigious award not only brings a lot of pride to our company but also recognizes our drive for excellence.”

“Truly, Berja’s hard work pays off as his efforts help AirAsia come up with new strategies to bring in the much-needed profit and return of investment, with a focus on stabilizing the company for the coming months,” he added.

As corporations slowly recover from the effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Ray understands how CFOs must strengthen their responsibilities to ensure the company remains afloat and liquid until it fully recovers.   

Ray is a 15-year finance veteran who spent his early years with external audit firms and multinational companies, before bringing his unique management style to AirAsia.

AirAsia Philippines CFO Ray Berja said, “This award serves both as an inspiration and a challenge to perform well, especially now that the aviation sector is facing its most turbulent times in history. We will continue to go the extra mile in making sure that we remain resilient and adaptive to the changing demands of the industry.”

“I consider working with AirAsia as a blessing from God. This only proves that if we put Christ in the equation of everything we do He will shower us with His favor and blessing,” he added.

Attributing his success to his time as a working student and his stint as a Philippine Military Academy (PMA) cadet, Berja also considers the importance of leadership, teamwork, and collaboration in building a solid foundation in an organization.

Berja is confident that AirAsia will manage to bounce back stronger with digital transformation, financial resiliency, and reform measures in place.

As Berja puts it, “CFOs must work as a catalyst of change, champion digital transformation, and ambassador of innovation by having an open dialog with stakeholders; shareholders, business leaders, sales, marketing, IT, and other stakeholders. We need to spend way more time with business leaders and people around in order to improve relationships and understand business imperatives and how finance can better serve needs with innovative solutions.”

Established in 2010, Acquisition International, a monthly digital magazine with over 108,000 professional readers, including Top Tier Managers and Investment Professionals, launched the Global CFO Excellence Awards, one of the most prestigious and note-worthy awards programmes in the Finance industry which acknowledges and celebrates excellence of global leaders across key sectors. 

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