Air New Zealand has appointed Leanne Geraghty to the newly created position of chief customer and sales officer. Geraghty will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran.
"Leanne is an outstanding leader with a tremendous depth of industry knowledge having worked in the aviation and tourism industries on both sides of the Tasman for more than 30 years and led teams around the world. Her detailed knowledge of the New Zealand, Australian and Pacific Island markets in particular sets us up well for the post Covid-19 international tourism recovery when the time comes," Foran says.
Geraghty is currently Group General Manager Airports and has responsibility for more than 1,800 employees and operations across 50 airports internationally.
Meanwhile, chief financial officer, Jeff McDowall, has confirmed that he intends to leave the airline toward the middle of 2021 after the completion of the planned capital raise.
“Jeff is playing a critical role in supporting myself and the Board as we rebuild from the ravages of Covid-19, but after a career spanning more than two decades with the airline, he feels it will be time to open a new chapter of his career once the capital raise is complete,” says Foran. “We will shortly commence a global search for a successor and I would like to thank Jeff for giving us such a long line of sight of his career intentions. He has had an illustrious career at Air New Zealand, including as acting Chief Executive Officer pending me starting earlier this year. Without Jeff's leadership over the past two decades, especially as part of the Executive team in recent years, the airline would not have delivered its long run of commercial success or grown its international footprint around the world so successfully.”