Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s Supervisory Board has decided to realign the Executive Board of Lufthansa Group in terms of structure and staffing effective January 1, 2020.
The Executive Board will be expanded to include the board-level position “Customer & Corporate Responsibility”. Christina Foerster, CEO Brussels Airlines, has been appointed to the board for this task; her contract has a term of three years. In her new role, Foerster will assume responsibility for product management, the future catering interface and marketing, including responsibility for the customer loyalty program “Miles & More”, among other things. Foerster will also be responsible for “Cultural Development” and will head the “Corporate Responsibility” department, making this the first time that the company’s responsibility for the environment, climate and society has been represented at the board level.
Going forward, Harry Hohmeister will be responsible for the coordination of network planning, revenue management, distribution and sales for all of the group’s passenger airlines as head of the “Commercial Passenger Airlines” division.
Against the background of the great importance of IT, digitalization and innovation, responsibility for these topics will be bundled in a newly created department “IT, Digital & Innovation” in future, to be headed by Thorsten Dirks.
The Supervisory Board has also decided to consistently structure the Executive Board according to functional criteria. As a result, “Eurowings” will no longer be managed as a separate board-level division. Eurowings has now established itself as an important division of the group and the third-largest point-to-point airline in Europe. It now flies every fourth passenger of the group. In future, the airline will be run in the same way as the group’s other passenger airlines, retaining its largely independent position.
Going forward, the “HR & Legal” department will be headed by Michael Niggemann, CFO of Swiss International Airlines. He was also appointed to the Executive Board for three years today.
Bettina Volkens, who was previously responsible for “HR & Legal” on the Executive Board, will leave the company by mutual agreement on December 31, 2019.
