Ashley Smout was appointed Chief Executive Officer at Airways New Zealand in September 2002. Prior to this appointment Ashley held the position of Chief Operating Officer from 1999-2002. In this role he was responsible for all the domestic operations of Airways including business planning and strategy development. Prior to starting with Airways, Ashley held various marketing and management positions with New Zealand and international companies. Ashley has a Bachelor of Business Studies from Massey University of Wellington and an MBA from Auckland. He has attended the Stanford Executive Programme at Stanford University, California.