People
December 1st 2014
Malaysia Airlines confirms Mueller as turnaround CEO
Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional, which will soon take full ownership of Malaysia Airlines (MAS), has announced that Christoph Mueller will be nominated as MAS’s CEO-designate and a non-executive director from January 1. Read More » Khazanah said discussions were underway for Mueller to join MAS “at a date prior to May 1, 2015, but no earlier than March 1, 2015”. A German citizen who has worked in the C-suites of Lufthansa, Sabena, Brussels Airlines (formerly Delta Air Transport) and most recently as CEO of Air Lingus, Mueller faces the challenge of running an airline, soon to be de-listed, that has to overcome tremendous morale and financial issues.
High hopes for new THAI boss
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One of Thailand’s most prominent business leaders, Harvard educated Charamporn Jotikisthira, has started work as the president of Thai Airways International (THAI) following the announcement of his appointment in November. The highly regarded former chairman of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), was chosen unanimously, THAI said, because of his outstanding record at SET, increasing its trading volume three fold during his tenure. The electrical engineer and computer science graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. has his work cut out for him. THAI has reported almost two years of consecutive losses as the airline battled the impact of a long running political conflict that resulted in a military coup d’etat in May, as well as contending with a huge capacity increase into Thailand from both budget and full service carriers from the Middle East, Europe and Australasia.
Former IATA director general joins Alitalia board
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Former International Air Transport Association (IATA) CEO and director general, Giovanni Bisignani, will serve as a non-executive director at Alitalia. Former Ferrari chairman, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, is the non-executive chairman of the nine member board. The “new Alitalia” will be re-launched on January 1 after Etihad’s 49% equity investment in the Italian carrier received regulatory approval in late November. Alitalia will select five directors and Etihad will choose three with the carrier’s CEO, Silvano Cassano, jointly appointed.
Former Kingfisher boss refused reappointment
India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs has refused a request from Vijay Mallya, the founder and former managing director of Kingfisher Airlines, to be re-appointed to the airline’s top role. Mallya is being pressured by Kingfisher’s creditors to help repay more than US$1 billion in loans that the airline had negotiated before it stopped flying in 2012. Mallya inherited the Indian drinks conglomberate, the UB Group, which controls United Breweries, a successful division of the flambuoyant entrepreneur’s business interests. No reasons were given for the ruling.
And briefly …
Describing him as one of the world’s outstanding marketeers when he announced the appointment of fellow Australian, Shane O’Hare as the new senior vice president of markewting at Etihad Airways, Etihad CEO said O’Hare was hired to take the airline’s brand “up another level”.
In other industry appointments, Dr Karen Reddington, who has been with FedEx Express since 1997, will succeed David Cunningham Jr. as president FedEx Express, Asia Pacific next month. Cunningham will return to the Memphis head office, not far from where he started his career packing and loading packages for the company, to take up the role of chief operating officer.
Former U.S. Navy pilot and the CEO of several leading aerospace companies, Steven Loranger, is the new senior advisor to Flight Safety International president and CEO, Bruce Whitman. The New York headquartered global flight training company provides training for pilots, engineers and other aviation specialists in 167 countries and operates the world’s largest fleet of full flight simulators.
Inmarsat, a leading global satellite company for the industry has appointed former United Airlines and operations manager, Captain Mary McMillan, as vice president aviation safety and operational services. Captain McMillan, with more than 12,000 hours of flying B747s, B767s and A320s, will strengthen Inmarsat’s position as it rolls out new mobile satellite based aviation connectivity services.
