The Qantas Group has announced a number of changes to its Group Management Committee as part of its CEO transition and continued focus on renewal.
The changes include senior appointments to roles made vacant by retirements and promotions, as well as structural changes to increase the focus on areas of major investment, including human resources and customer experience.
Commenting on the appointments, Venessa Hudson, CEO-designate said: “The structural changes announced today are about increasing our focus on a few key areas as we move from recovery to growth, especially when it comes to things that matter most to our people and our customers.”
In the first major move, a new position of Chief People Officer is created to bring together human resources and industrial relations functions, which are currently split. This comes as the Group expects to create 8,500 new jobs in Australia within the next decade and ramps up training as it takes delivery of new aircraft. An executive search process is underway to fill this role.
““We have a lot of expansion planned in the years ahead and that will translate into thousands of new frontline jobs and millions of hours of training. Keeping our team engaged and supporting them to deliver for our customers is critical, and so is the dedicated Chief People Officer role,” Hudson added.
The current Qantas Group Executive of Strategy, People and Technology, Rob Marcolina will transition to the role of New Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as CFO Vanessa Hudson takes on the Group CEO role. MArcolina will also assume the responsibility for Strategy and Transformation
Following the retirement of the current Chief Customer Officer, Andrew David in September Markus Svensson will assume the role of new CEO of Qantas Domestic. Catriona Larritt, the current executive manager of Qantas freight will take the post of new Chief Customer and Digital Officer. New responsibility will be added to this portfolio considering the role of digital in improving customer experience.
“Investing in digital is a huge part of our plans to keep improving customer experience. Through the website and app, we can put a lot of power in people’s hands to control their journey and access real time information. That’s why we are adding responsibility for Technology to the Chief Customer Officer’s portfolio,” Hudson commented.
The current Chief Executive of QantasLink, John Gissing, will retire from this position in November after almost 25 years. An executive search process is underway to fill this position, which has responsibility for regional and some charter market operations. John will remain available to the Group CEO for a further 12 months as an adviser.
A new position of Chief Risk Officer is being created to bring together risk management for the Group as a whole, to provide the highest level of oversight and governance. Current Qantas Executive, Andrew Monaghan, will step into this role. Andrew is currently Executive Manager of Safety and has deep operational experience gained during a 17-year career at the Group
All of these senior executive roles will report directly to the new Group CEO, Vanessa Hudson, when she steps into the position in November 2023.