Originally Posted by
Zhoottoo
Virgin Australia’s new chief executive Paul Scurrah has restructured his executive team in a move that will see group executive Rob Sharp depart the company this Friday.
The restructure follows a two-day strategy meeting held on the Gold Coast last week, at which Mr Scurrah discussed new ideas for success with his most senior managers.
Today The Australian has learned Mr Scurrah has created the positions of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Chief Operations Officer (COO) within the Virgin Australia (VAH) business, in the place of Mr Sharp’s role.
While a global recruitment process is conducted, Tigerair chief executive Merren McArthur will act in the CCO role and director of group flight operations Stuart Aggs will act in the COO role.
Both executives have been with Virgin Australia for a number of years, working in several parts of the business.
Prior to taking on the top job at Tigerair, Ms McArthur led Alliances and Revenue Management and also headed up the Cargo and Charter Services division.
Mr Aggs was previously head of safety and is considered to have the right operational experience for the interim COO role.
Mr Sharp was previously Tigerair’s chief executive before moving into the second-in-charge role under Mr Borghetti.
He was considered a possible contender for the top job but never revealed if he had applied.
It’s understood the changes have been received well internally, six weeks after Mr Scurrah took over from previous CEO John Borghetti.
Last week, Mr Scurrah announced he had renegotiated Virgin Australia’s 737 MAX order with Boeing, deferring deliveries of the first aircraft from this year to 2021, and converting 15 MAX 8 orders, to the larger, more fuel efficient MAX 10s.
He told The Australian he had received an “overwhelmingly positive” welcome to the airline and continued to be excited by the opportunity.
“There is definitely a positivity in the DNA of the people at Virgin which I think really sets us apart from our competition,” Mr Scurrah said.
“There’s a real desire here by all of the people I’ve met for us to succeed and be a powerful player, so that’s very very good to know.”
The Australian
And yet, the VA propensity for disposing of anyone with experience and a track record continues. The other two are lightweights compared to Sharp but it's no surprise, that's the way they roll.