Summary
- Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth, a highly valued and long-standing manager, has resigned from her position, leaving in February 2024.
- Qantas has hired Catherine Walsh as its first Chief People Officer to enhance relations with employees and unions, an area where the airline has struggled previously.
- Current Chairman Richard Goyder has announced his retirement but will remain in his position until sometime between October 2022 and the Annual General Meeting in late 2024, despite ongoing issues facing the corporate.
While not as dramatic because the day Alan Joyce cleared his desk and sailed into the sunset, today was one other eventful time for brand new Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson. Long-standing and highly regarded senior manager Olivia Wirth resigned from her role as CEO of Qantas Loyalty and can leave the airline in February 2024.
A highly valued CEO is leaving
Concurrently with that announcement, Qantas revealed it had appointed its first Chief People Officer, a brand new position under the revised Qantas Group management team structure announced in June. The brand new hire is Catherine Walsh, who comes from a profession in human resources and industrial relations, an area that Qantas has never performed all that well in.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy Flying
Olivia Wirth has been with Qantas for 14 years and took over the CEO role at Qantas Loyalty in 2018. Previous to that she had filled senior roles with the Qantas Group as Chief Customer Officer and Group Executive for Brand, Marketing and Corporate Affairs. She has often stood with former CEO Alan Joyce for major Qantas announcements and was seen as certainly one of the frontrunners for the highest job that ultimately went to Hudson.
Under Wirth’s leadership, Qantas Loyalty has been a rock-solid performer for the Qantas Group, consistently delivering high returns and growing the Frequent Flyer membership to around 15 million today. Loyalty has expanded its presence in hotels, holidays, insurance and financial services, including acquiring a majority stake in travel business TripADeal. In today’s statement, Wirth said:
“Qantas has been a large a part of my skilled life and I’m really grateful for the opportunities I have been given through the years. At its core, Qantas is an incredible company and brand and I’ve loved being a part of it. I’m extremely pleased with what the team at Loyalty has achieved and I’m looking forward to delivering more improvements for members before I leave.”
Together with other responsibilities, Wirth has been on the Qantas Group management committee for greater than ten years, steering Loyalty through Covid when it was the one serious earner within the group. She is extremely regarded in the broader business community and has already been nominated for a Director seat on the board of certainly one of Australia’s major retailers. Qantas says it has began the technique of finding a brand new CEO of Qantas Loyalty and that Wirth is leaving “to pursue other opportunities.”
A variety of repair work needed
The brand new Chief People Officer has been tasked with driving a stronger relationship between Qantas and its 25,000 employees and with the unions that represent them. That actually borders on a Mission Unimaginable, given the fractious relationships Qantas often has with its staff and almost at all times with their unions. It has unsuccessfully spent years and thousands and thousands of dollars in litigation with certainly one of those unions in order that will probably be an interesting first get-together when it happens.
Photo: Ryan Fletcher | Shutterstock
A wierd recent announcement was that current Chairman Richard Goyder announced his retirement but nominated his last day as being sometime between October this 12 months and the Annual General Meeting in late 2024, despite the very fact there’s an annual general meeting happening next month.
Goyder has been on the Qantas board since 2017, and since then, he has worked hand-in-glove with Joyce, backing his man until the very end when it seems not less than Joyce knew his time was up. He has had oversight of Qantas for five years, and his position was rapidly becoming untenable, so it was no surprise he resigned, it’s just astonishing that he’ll stay on for an additional 12 months.
He recently acknowledged the numerous reputational and customer support issues facing the Group and recognized that “accountability is required to revive trust.” Picking your personal departure date sometime in the subsequent twelve months hardly looks as if taking accountability.