Vanessa Hudson will become the next CEO and Managing Director of the Qantas Group, taking over from Alan Joyce when he retires in November 2023.
Hudson is currently the Group’s Chief Financial Officer and has worked in a number of executive positions across the Group over 28 years, including Chief Customer Officer and Senior Vice President for Qantas across the Americas and New Zealand.
She will continue in her current role while also being CEO designate and joining the Board, before taking over as the company’s 13th CEO in 103 years following the 2023 Annual General Meeting. An announcement on a new CFO will be made in the months ahead.
Chairman Richard Goyder said the appointment came after a rigorous selection process and allows for a smooth transition from current CEO Alan Joyce.
Hudson joined Qantas in 1994. Since then, she has held a variety of senior commercial, customer and finance roles across the Group, in Australia and overseas, including Executive Manager of Sales and Distribution; Senior Vice President for Qantas across the Americas and New Zealand; Executive Manager of Commercial Planning and Executive Manager for Product and Service.
In these various roles her responsibilities ranged from sales channels, revenue management and network planning, to transformation in catering, airports and network.
In February 2018, Hudson was appointed to the role of Chief Customer Officer and became a member of the Group Management Committee.
In October 2019, she became the Group’s Chief Financial Officer and held this portfolio through the COVID crisis, when sudden border closures saw revenue evaporate in a matter of weeks. Careful management through this period – including equity raising, debt raising and asset sales – saw the company make it through the crisis and ultimately emerge with a stronger balance sheet than pre-COVID.
