Asia Pacific appointment highlights of the month – June-2018

The travel, tourism and aviation industries in the Asia Pacific 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 Asia Pacific market, while also looking forward to key appointments announced for the following month.

Here are the key executive changes for June-2018:

• Australia's deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Michael McCormack announced two key appointments to Airservices Australia, with John Weber appointed as the next Chair of Airservices for a three year term. Mr McCormack also reappointed Fiona Balfour to the Board for a further two years.
• SriLankan Airlines CEO Suren Ratwatte would take an early retirement to facilitate restructuring of SriLankan Airlines, chairman Ranjith Fernando stated.
• Air New Zealand appointed Carrie Hurihanganui to the newly created executive role of chief ground operations officer. She will join the Air New Zealand executive team toward the end of Jul-2018 to allow a smooth transition before chief operations officer Bruce Parton departs in Sep-2018.
• Gold Coast Tourism Corporation Limited appointed Annaliese Battista as CEO, effective 06-Aug-2018.
• Nok Air appointed Pawinee Chayavuttikulas as chief financial officer and Thaveechai Ashareyaphadkul as chief commercial officer, effective 15-Jun-2018.
• Vietnam's Ministry of Transport appointed Phạm Việt Dũng as Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation chairman, effective 06-Jun-2018.
• Jin Air CEO Kwon Hyuk-min resigned due to personal reasons on 19-Jun-2018.
• PNG Air announced the appointment of William Lamur as a director and chairman of the board, effective 19-Jun-2018.
• Singapore's Ministry of Transport appointed Edmund Cheng Wai Wing as chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, effective 01-Jul-2018.
• Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad announced Badlisham Ghazali's contract as managing director of MAHB expired on 22-Jun-2018. MAHB CFO Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin will serve as interim CEO until Mr Ghazali's successor is appointed.
• IndiGo confirmed the resignation of Sanjay Kumar as chief commercial officer from 15-Jul-2018.
• SkyJet Airlines appointed Patrick T Tan as CEO.
• Air Vanuatu appointed Derek Nice as CEO on 27-Jun-2018.
• Chengdu Airlines announced Tang Jin was re-elected as chairman. Sui Mingguang and Ran Yalin were elected as deputy chairmen while Zhao Guangyi was elected as president.
• Qantas announced group chairman Leigh Clifford will step down in Oct-2018, after 11 years in the role. Board member Richard Goyder will assume the role of chairman following the carrier's AGM on 26-Oct-2018.
• Japan Airlines appointed VP loyalty marketing Shingo Nishida as president of its new LCC start up.
• Brisbane Airport Corporation appointed Gert-Jan De Graaff as CEO, replacing Julieanne Alroe who led the airport since 2009.