John Sutherland is heading up ASA Group’s newly formed lifestyle and concierge service department

ASA Group introduces lifestyle services

As part of its ongoing development the ASA Group has introduced a lifestyle and concierge service department, headed up by John B Sutherland through the company's Hong Kong office. Sutherland has experience in the lifestyle, travel, music and entertainment business and has a reputation for making difficult requests become a reality. He also handles requests for special appearances by celebrities for personal meetings and private events.

“We have had many challenging requests and some of the more interesting ones have been especially rewarding for our clients and our team,” says founder and chairman Simon Wagstaff. “In February I had a small group of clients who wanted to go to the Himalayas to spot the very elusive snow leopard. As a result of our detailed preparations they managed to spot leopards the second day in the mountain and many times thereafter.

“Another interesting request I received was from a businessman who was a junior chess champion in Portugal. He wanted to do something unique that was chess related, so I flew Garry Kasparov out to Lisbon to play chess with him for an evening.

“In the past we have arranged lunch with Al Pacino, a week on Necker Island with entrepreneurs including Sir Richard Branson, and dinner with Andrea Bocelli at his private residence in Tuscany, to mention just a few of the requests. Another client has just requested to play in a Pro-Am golf tour-nament at Pebble Beach in California later this year and we have just confirmed that for him."

Upgrade of protocols

The group is also in the process of upgrading its processes and protocols to ISO 9001-2015, which incorporates risk management and information security management.

Wagstaff says: “ASA first gained ISO certification in 2009, and has since also been certified by the International Business Aviation Council as a service affiliate for IS-BAO and IS-BAH. In addition we are registered members of Wyvern and Argus for our air charter operations, as well as BACA, the Air Charter Association, in London.

“Aside from operational risk, we also seek to mitigate internal risk by protecting our customer data and are also committed to protecting clients from the risk of falling foul of widespread bribery and corruption issues. For that reason we subject ourselves to TRACE certification every year, which means I personally go through online training, and the company as a whole is audited for compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in USA and the UK Bribery Act.”