Virgin Australia announces new leadership team
January 18, 2021 10:46
Virgin Australia’s new CEO Jayne Hrdlicka has announced key appointments to the airline’s executive leadership team including a new CEO for loyalty program Velocity, chief customer and digital officer and chief corporate affairs officer.
Virgin Australia’s general manager, brand and marketing Michael Nearhos exited the business late last year along with a number of other executives following a difficult year for the airline, which entered administration in July and was subsequently acquired by Bain Capital shortly after.
Virgin Australia made job cuts of 40%, which also carried across to the the marketing team.
By Cirium2021-01-18T09:45:00+00:00
Virgin Australia has announced six appointments to its 10-member executive leadership team, under new chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka.
“Several of the new appointments replace contractors or fill vacant positions,” the company states.
Source: Virgin Australia
Jayne Hrdlicka took helm of Virgin Australia in October.
Five of the six are new additions to the airline group and will join “over the next several months”, from either the fast-moving consumer goods sector or other airline groups.
Lisa Burquest will take the role of chief people officer on 1 February, joining from The a2 Milk Company where she was chief people, safety and sustainability officer. Between 2013 and 2018, she was executive manager of human resources at Qantas and executive manager of people and communications at Jetstar.
Virgin Australia confirms new leadership team for fresh customer push
CEO confirms new chief customer and digital officer, Velocity CEO, finance, people and transformation leaders Jayne Hrdlicka
Virgin Australia has confirmed the appointment of its chief customer and digital officer and recruited a new Velocity CEO as part of a fresh executive leadership team full of aviation experience announced today.
As previously reported by CMO in December, Velocity has recruited Qantas former chief transformation officer, Paul Jones, as its new chief customer and digital officer. Jones spent more than nine years in senior roles at Qantas including chief operations officer, CIO and executive manager of customer and digital strategy. Prior to this, he was a CIO and VP of integration and transformation at Mars based in the US.