Qantas has promoted Olivia Wirth to chief executive of the company’s loyalty business, filling a vacancy created by the departure of Jayne Hrdlicka in mid-December 2017.
Wirth, will assume her new role as Qantas Loyalty chief executive on February 12 2018, the company said on Wednesday.
The appointment follows the resignation of Jayne Hrdlicka in December 2017 to head up dairy business The a2 Milk Company.
Qantas said executive manager of sales and distribution Vanessa Hudson, who has been with the company for more than two decades, would be Wirth’s replacement as chief customer officer.
“At the senior executive level we have a number of very high calibre individuals who have a deep understanding of our business, and Olivia and Vanessa are two standout examples of that,” Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.
“Olivia has been on the Group Management Committee for eight years and has very successfully led the Qantas brand, including managing the marketing function for Frequent Flyer, as part of her portfolio. It’s a business she understands well and that will benefit from her strong customer analytics and marketing experience as this part of our portfolio keeps expanding.
“Vanessa has led many key customer improvements over her 23 years at Qantas, including the introduction of Neil Perry and Rockpool into our in-flight dining and the complete re-design of our domestic check-in experience. Combined with her understanding of our network and fleet, Vanessa will lead the many initiatives happening across the Group to keep improving the experience for our customers.”
Qantas said Hudson would retain responsibility group marketing as chief customer officer, while responsibility for corporate affairs would move to group executive for people and culture Lesley Grant.
The appointments comes eight months after Qantas reshuffled its leadership team in August 2017 when Wirth was named chief customer officer while retaining her role as Qantas group executive for brand, marketing and corporate affairs.
Qantas releases its 2017/18 first half results on February 22.
