Life-changing crisis for MAS CEO

UP until March 8, Malaysia Airlines boss Ahmad Jauhari Yahya was immersed in a painful task inherited from his predecessors - to stem the airline's staggering losses and lead it back to profitability.

Now, the 59-year-old lean-built triathlete - possibly one of the fittest chief executives in Malaysia - is grappling with a different kind of deficit; far deeper and far more tragic than the red figures that the airline has been sinking into for three straight years. The drumbeat of stress and anxiety since Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, vanished three weeks ago, visibly blankets Mr Ahmad Jauhari's countenance.

"He is truly shaken. He's tough but this must be heart wrenching and gut busting," says a senior executive of a government-linked company (GLC) who knows the man whom many in the corporate circuit call "AJ".