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Japan Airlines names Akasaka as new president; Ueki moves to board chairman
January 26th 2018
Japan Airlines (JAL) has named Yuji Akasaka, 56, to succeed Yoshiharu Ueki as president of Japan Airlines, with effect from April 1, and subject to shareholder approval at the annual general meeting in June. Read More » Ueki, president of JAL since 2012, told a press conference this week that he felt it was time for a new leader “because my energy became empty”. Akasaka, who is JAL’s managing executive officer engineering and maintenance, joined the company in 1987, the year the airline was privatised. Ueki will take over as JAL chairman following the retirement of Masaharu Onishi. The retiring chairman will remain on the group’s board.
Qantas names new loyalty CEO and Chief Customer Officer
On Wednesday, Qantas announced Olivia Wirth as CEO of Qantas Loyalty, succeeding Jayne Hrdlicka, who announced last December she was leaving the group to become CEO of The A2 Milk Company. Wirth has been with the group for nine years, where she has spent most of her time as a member of the management committee with responsibility for brand, marketing and corporate affairs. She is the Group’s Chief Customer Officer (CCO).
Vanessa Hudson will succeed Wirth as CCO and join the Group’s management committee. Hudson joined Qantas in 1994 and is the executive manager of sales and distribution. She has held a series of customer and commercial roles at the airline, including head of product and service development, senior vice president of the Americas and New Zealand and general manager of inflight services.
Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce, said the appointments, which will take effect on February 12, reflected the best use of the executive talent within the Qantas Group.
“Olivia has been on the Group Management Committee for eight years and has very successfully led the Qantas brand, including managing the marketing function for our Frequent Flyer program, as part of her portfolio. It’s a business she understands well and that will benefit from her strong customer analytics and marketing experience as this part of our portfolio keeps expanding,” Joyce said.
“Vanessa has led many key customer improvements over her 23 years at Qantas, including the introduction of Neil Perry and Rockpool into our in-flight dining and the complete re-design of our domestic check-in experience. Combined with her understanding of our network and fleet, Vanessa will lead the many initiatives across the Group to keep improving the experience for our customers.”
