Americas appointment highlights of the months – Nov/Dec 2019

The travel, tourism and aviation industries in the Americas region witness policy and upper level changes on a daily basis. It is important to not only keep tabs of these organisations direction, but to also monitor changes in executive branches to see the wider picture of the travel market. The Blue Swan Daily will keep you informed of these movements each month, with a full wrap of the key changes in the Americas market, while also looking forward to key appointments announced for the last two months of 2019.

Here are the key executive changes for Nov/Dec 2019;

• Aerolineas Argentinas president and CEO Luis Malvido presented his resignation on 20-Nov-2019, effective 10-Dec-2019;
• Aerolineas Argentinas' board appointed Pablo Ceriani as CEO for Aerolineas Argentinas and Austral on 13-Dec-2019;
• Flair Airlines announced the following executive changes:
  • Chief pilot Captain Matt Kunz appointed as VP of flight operations;
  • Director of maintenance Guy Borowski promoted to the position of VP of maintenance;
  • Commercial director Sarah Riches appointed as VP of commercial;
  • Director of finance Jocelyn Harris promoted to the position of VP of finance;
  • Director of human resources Richard Williams appointed as VP of human resources;
  • Flight attendant manager Sandy Burns appointed as director of in-flight services.
• Air LEAP appointed Jon Melkesson as acting CEO, effective 29-Nov-2019;
• United Airlines appointed president Scott Kirby as CEO, effective May-2020, succeeding Oscar Munoz who will transition to executive chairman in May-2020;
• Viva Group appointed Jason Bewley as CFO;
• CommutAir appointed Michael Rosso as director of systems operations control (SOC), effective 30-Dec-2019;
• Pacific Coastal Airlines announced the following executive changes on 20-Dec-2019:
  • Rob Kidner appointed as VP of corporate development;
  • Darcy Coonfer appointed as VP of flight operations;
  • Ron Karger appointed as VP of maintenance;
  • Laura Nadin-Young appointed as VP of airports and operations centre;
  • Johnathan Richardson appointed as VP of commercial services;
  • Zahra Kawa appointed as VP of finance.
• Spirit Airlines appointed Matt Klein as EVP and CCO on 23-Dec-2019;
• Alaska Air Group announced the retirement of CFO Brandon Pedersen, effective 02-Mar-2020;
• Aerolineas Argentinas appointed Fabian Lombardo as commercial director, route planning and management;
• LIAT's board appointed former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur as chairman;
• Alaska Airlines announced the promotion of the following executives, effective 13-Jan-2020:
  • Sangita Woerner promoted to the position of SVP of marketing and guest experience;
  • Charu Jain promoted to the position of SVP of merchandising and innovation;
  • Vikram Baskaran promoted to the position of VP of information technology services;
  • Kyle Levine promoted to the position of SVP of legal and general counsel.