Malaysia Aviation Group’s Enrich head of loyalty steps down

Hemanth Jayaraman (pictured) has stepped down as head of loyalty, Enrich, at Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG).

In the role, Jayaraman led MAG’s corporate loyalty business, overseeing its strategy and P&L while working to evolve Enrich from a traditional frequent-flyer programme into a broader travel and lifestyle ecosystem. His remit included expanding partnerships across travel, financial services, retail and lifestyle, as well as strengthening digital member benefits, rewards and points redemption to drive engagement and membership growth.

He also oversaw strategic alliances with partners including the oneworld alliance, Singapore Airlines and Japan Airlines, alongside non-air partnerships aimed at increasing the utility of Enrich points, according to his LinkedIn. 

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Jayaraman first joined MAG as head of marketing in 2023, before moving into the loyalty business. Prior to MAG, he was general manager of dentsuX Media, where he oversaw the agency’s business direction, strategic client relationships and operations.

He also held senior marketing and commercial roles at Moët Hennessy Diageo Malaysia and PepsiCo, working across brands including Hennessy, Johnnie Walker, Lipton and Tropicana. Earlier in his career, he founded boutique agency SW1TCH Strategies, following a stint at Leo Burnett Malaysia. 

In a statement to A+M, Jayaraman said his biggest achievement at Enrich was not the numbers themselves, but how the business and team evolved during his tenure.

When he took over the loyalty business in 2024, he said it had strong potential but had yet to fully realise it. Over the following two years, he focused on repositioning Enrich as a commercial business, with greater emphasis on profitability, revenue productivity and member relevance. That included reviewing partnerships, campaigns and member interactions through a commercial lens, while going back to members to understand what they valued.

Enrich also underwent its first programme design and policy refresh in a decade, a process that involved members, partners and teams across MAG.

Jayaraman said the experience was particularly significant given that he had entered the role without a background in loyalty or experience running a business at that scale.

“Despite having no prior loyalty background or experience and having never run a business of this scale, I am proud on what I have delivered as a leader – a business that contributes significantly to the group’s bottom-line and a program that is meaningful to its members,” he said. "I am comforted to know that I have done my small part in contributing to the nation and to Malaysia."

He also credited the wider organisation for the progress, pointing to teams across operations, digital, finance, customer service and airport operations that worked together to address member issues rather than treating them as the responsibility of individual departments.

That customer focus is something he said he will miss, particularly the direct feedback from Enrich members. While complaints could easily be viewed negatively, Jayaraman saw them as evidence that members remained invested in the programme and wanted it to improve.

For now, Jayaraman plans to take a deliberate pause after two decades in high-accountability roles, with family taking priority. He is also consulting with several companies on transformation and growth, areas that remain a key interest.

He has not ruled out returning to a corporate leadership role, although he is also open to building something outside the corporate world.

I love building businesses. I love fixing what's broken. And I've always done both while keeping the customer at the centre of it all.

Looking ahead to Q4 and 2027, Jayaraman said marketers should return to the fundamentals while becoming more commercially minded.

He urged marketers to question whether the metrics they report genuinely move the business, rather than simply being easy to measure. Reach and impressions may be straightforward to report, he said, but marketers should be able to connect their work to revenue, retention and margin.

As he puts it: 

Activity is not impact. Reach is not loyalty. A busy calendar of campaigns is not a strategy.

He also cautioned against relying too heavily on discount-led growth, which can drive short-term volume while training customers to wait for the next offer. At the same time, he called for marketers to break down internal silos, pointing to customer experience as an area where marketing, operations, data and frontline teams need to work together.

While technology, channels and customer expectations will continue to evolve, Jayaraman said the fundamentals remain unchanged: know the customer, deliver real value, build trust and earn the right to a long-term relationship. The challenge, he added, is adapting how those principles are applied as the market changes.

For Jayaraman, that combination of customer focus and commercial thinking will become increasingly important as marketers move into 2027.

“Marketers who can talk P&L are the ones who get a seat at the table,” he said.

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