Mr Sia: Fly Past by Ken Hickson

Introducing the life and times of a legend in the international airline business Lim Chin Beng the man they called Mr SIA.

Absorbing the life and work of Lim Chin Beng is like watching a flypast of airlines and aircraft old and new. In this book, the past of Singapore Airlines comes to meet you in many forms designs, shapes, figures, photographs, books, episodes and you discover the connections with business, society and international aviation today. Here's a man who was instrumental in taking the very basic components of a business like a potter taking the clay and creating what has become one of the world's leading brands, Singapore Airlines. How did he do it? What drove him to go where few others have?

This airline "specialist," trained as an economist, had a broad range of interests in the arts and sports, and in property and tourism. He was committed to do his "national service" for Singapore in the way he knew best. But besides getting the national airline off the ground and into an international success story, he also served as a leading businessman, diplomat and trade negotiator. Described as a "quiet achiever," this humble gentleman was not afraid to make bold decisions and take risks, even to the extent of setting up a private budget airline, Valuair. Lim Chin Beng, unwittingly perhaps, took to heart the words of Shakespeare, accepting that "all the world's a stage" and taking on the role of "one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages."