Idris Jala

Prior to his government work, Jala used to work for Shell. In 2005, the Malaysian government elected him as CEO of Malaysia Airlines due to massive losses of the company.^[2] In February 2006, he announced the airline's business turnaround plan from a 9-month loss of US$400 million in 2005 to achieving a record profit of US$260 million in 2007.^[3] He served until August 2009 after successfully turning around MAS and was awarded the CAPA Airline Turnaround of the Year (2006).^[2] He was also voted as a Governor on the Board of IATA (International Air Transport Association) in 2006.

Jala was born and brought up in Bario located in the Kelabit Highlands region of Sarawak's northern Miri Division, but owns residences in the state capital of Kuching (where his immediate family resides), the second-largest city of Miri (since his extended family and relatives on both sides from the Kelabit Higlands reside for residential domicile purposes) as well as the national capital of Kuala Lumpur, for where he resides with his own wife and children as a result of his corporate and political career.^[6] He is the third child out of four children born to Henry Jala Temalai (1931–2016) and Lapu Sakai Midang Aren (1936–2023), for he has an elder brother named Rubin (born 1954), followed by an elder sister, Datin Garnette Jala-Ridu (born 1956), the spouse of former Sarawak State Legislative Assembly speaker of Bidayuh descent, Dato Robert Jacob Ridu (born 1949), then followed by a younger sister, Elizabeth Jala-Bato (born 1964).^[7] His father, who was a former Kelabit Highland pemanca (tribal chief) cum retired schoolteacher since 1989, died on 22 March 2016, aged 85, whilst his mother, Lapu Sakai died in September 2023, aged 87 after outliving her husband for seven years.^[8]

Jala is a Kelabit from Sarawak and is a Christian belonging to the Sidang Injil Borneo denomination of Protestantism.^[9] He is married to Pang Ngan Yue and has two sons.^[6] He is one of the few non-Malay non-Muslims to have been appointed to head a GLC.^[10] Since March 2024, Jala and his son, Leon holds a weekly podcast called The Game of Impossible.^[11]