The WestJet Group has appointed Benjamin Smith and Álex Cruz as Vice-Chairs of its Board of Directors and also appointed Lisa Durocher to its Board of Directors.
"It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Benjamin and Álex as Vice-Chairs of our Board of Directors. Benjamin and Álex are both senior airline industry veterans, with proven track records, who will continue to bring strategic and commercial leadership to the WestJet Group as we work together to deliver value to WestJet Group's guests, employees and stakeholders," said Chris Burley, Chairman of the WestJet Group's Board of Directors.
Smith is the CEO of Air France-KLM where he has served since 2018. Prior to that, he had a distinguished career for more than two decades at Air Canada, where he held a number of increasingly senior positions most recently as president, airlines and chief operating officer.
Cruz started his career at American Airlines in Dallas and later founded low-cost airline Clickair. He then merged it with Barcelona-based Vueling and eventually drove its acquisition by International Airlines Group (IAG). In 2016, he became the chairman and CEO of British Airways where he served until 2021. Cruz also serves on the board of Recaro, PortAventura World and several travel tech start-ups.
The WestJet Group also appointed Lisa Durocher to the WestJet Group Board of Directors. Durocher was most recently the CEO of Rogers Bank and Executive vice-president, financial services of Rogers Communications where she oversaw the strategy and scaling of the financial services of the organization.
"We are pleased to welcome Lisa to our Board of Directors at this incredibly exciting time for the WestJet Group," said Burley. "Lisa's impressive 30 years of leadership experience at some of North America's most successful brands will be an invaluable asset to the WestJet Group as we continue to radically digitalize and rapidly grow our business to serve market demand."