Management Team
Our Management Team comprises a group of highly dedicated, experienced and professional airline personnel, each with a record of reliability and achievement within their field of expertise with major airlines.
The key members of the team have been with Koala since the project started, having over 300 years of combined experience with airlines ranging from Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Emirates, Qantas, Virgin, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways and Air India.
Bill Astling
Founding CEO
Bill has been involved in the aviation and tourism industry for over 45 years, possessing extensive experience in aviation management, airline restructuring, operations, aircraft chartering, strategy and customer service, with expertise in stakeholder engagement across all levels of business.
With his team of aviation professionals, Bill provided a range of consulting services from senior leadership to operational, technical and advisory roles to 12 existing and start-up airlines in the Asia Pacific region since the early 1990’s. They included Singapore Airlines, Air India, Angel Airlines, Merpati Indonesia, Sri Lankan Airlines, Jes Air, Antonov Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Lao Aviation, Vietnam Airlines, Sahara Airlines and various Chinese Airlines starting flights to Australia. He was also the aviation consultant to the China Chamber of Commerce in Australia.
Bill founded Koala Airlines in March 2018.
Phil Le Liu
Director
Philip is a director with board and committee experience and over 15+ years’ insight across numerous industries.
In his current elected government role with the City of Melbourne, he has oversight and the lead on implementing the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals. He is also the City’s representative on the Audit and Risk Committee for the past 5+ years that oversees expenditure and risk management.
Philip was recognised in 2019 as one of ‘40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians’ and the inaugural winner of the Public Sector / Government category.
Sally Spring MBA
Chief Operating Officer
Sally commenced her career with Air UK 1997 which became KLM UK soon after. In 2000 KLM launched a British low-cost airline as a subsidiary, called buzz. Sally was involved in the launch and worked on the ground in load control, flight planning and operations.
In 2003 she joined Astraeus Airlines, another British based start up, providing charter services to European and African destinations.
In 2006, she relocated to Dubai with her family, where she worked for The Emirates Group as a Senior Lecturer and Programme Manager at Emirates Aviation University. Also working as part of the wider academic team and managing the Foundation programme for Emirates in collaboration with Coventry University, UK.
Key responsibilities were lecturing for the Business School and School of Engineering on Aviation management, Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Airline Commercial Operations.
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Keith Bolshaw
CFO and Aviation Consultant
Keith has been involved in Koala’s development since 2018 and has been responsible for the continuous update of the detailed financial model.
An Oxford-educated chartered accountant, Keith has more than 30 years’ experience in aviation. He has worked in senior roles as Board member / CEO of various airlines (a Director of a British Airways subsidiary), aircraft lessors (incl. GPA – precursor of GECAS) and adviser to the owners / top management of private and public airlines in his role as MD of the International Bureau of Aviation (“IBA”).
Keith will negotiate the leases, of which he has extensive experience including 7 of the world’s top 10 aircraft lessors.
Kelsie Johnston
Head of Business Development
Kelsie brings 25 years of board and senior executive experience in the private, state and local government sectors of travel, business, tourism, and events.
As the Director of Markets at Tourism Western Australia, Kelsie led market strategies, operations and marketing activities in eleven international and domestic markets.
Kelsie is the recipient of the prestigious Australian Tourism Export Council Award for the Outstanding Contribution to the Tourism Industry Section by an Individual.
Unni Nair
Continued Airworthiness Manager
Unni commenced his career at Singapore Airlines and over a period of 20 years he worked in various positions on both Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Appointed as Senior Quality Engineer (Investigations and Human Factors).
Unni spent a further 8 years as Head of Safety for AMSA in Australia (a Singapore Airlines subsidiary).
Unni was appointed to the Koala team in 2019 as the Continuous Airworthiness Manager responsible for the maintenance and engineering of the aircraft and compliance with all CASA directives.
Anton Meryl Nithianandan
Chief Technology Officer / Koala Tech
Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Computer Science; Master of Software System Engineering, 2003-2004, University of Melbourne.
Master of Network Computing, 2004-2005, Monash University.
Co-founder, CTO and defined overall business strategy of Nuji Ltd, UK - acquired by Klarna AB Sweden the world’s biggest digital payments provider.
Prior to joining Koala in 2021, his key clients included Klarna Sweden, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, H&M, ZARA, Myer, Telstra Australia, Yahoo! Sports, Microsoft MSN and Cricket Australia.
Head of Flight Operations
The HOFO at Koala Airlines manages the safety and compliance of the flying operations. They will monitor and maintain compliance and report to the CEO about the level of compliance with both the legislation and the operator’s exposition.
Our HOFO is an important part of the team of key personnel managing the air operator’s certificate (AOC). They have expert knowledge of operational and aviation safety management together with extensive experience in senior positions in Australia, Asia, US and Middle East. and has over 17500 hours of Command time on heavy jets.
Safety & Quality Assurance Manager
Commenced his career with Ansett as a Licenced Aircraft Engineer and was ultimately appointed as the General Manager of Ansett Worldwide directly responsible to the Civil Aviation Authority of Australia (CASA), for Boeing 737, B767 aircraft operating under the Australian AOC.
He joined CASA in 2006 as an Airworthiness Inspector and was elevated to Team Leader of the multidisciplinary team which included Flying Operations, Airworthiness, Cabin Safety, Ground Handling, Dangerous Goods and Safety Management Inspectors.
We have identified experienced executives to head the following roles as the company progresses.
The positions are:
- CEO designate
- CFO
- Head of Commercial
- General Counsel
- Head of Cabin Crew
- Chief of Human Resources