SWISS appoints new CCO and CFO

2013-04-17 — /travelprnews.com/ — The SWISS Management Board is complete once again. As its new Chief Commercial Officer the airline has appointed Markus Binkert, currently Head of Sales & Marketing Switzerland, Germany & Austria; and the successor to Marcel Klaus as Chief Financial Officer will be Roland Busch, presently Head of Finance & Information Management at Lufthansa German Airlines.

Markus Binkert (41), who is SWISS’s current Head of Sales & Marketing for Switzerland, Germany and Austria, will assume his new duties as Chief Commercial Officer on 1 May. He succeeds Holger Hätty, who left the company at the beginning of this year.

“In appointing Markus Binkert we are underlining once again the sizeable management and specialist potential within our own ranks,” comments CEO Harry Hohmeister. “Through the various executive positions he has held, Markus has already been instrumental in the development of our Commercial Division and its focuses and activities over the past few years.”

Markus Binkert joined SWISS in 2005. After initially serving as Head of Global Key Account & Business Sales Switzerland, he moved in 2008 to head up the Product & Services department, where his achievements included introducing the new SWISS long-haul cabin product. Two years later he was appointed Head of Marketing, in which capacity he was a driving force behind the recent sharpening of the SWISS brand profile. He moved to his present position as Head of Sales & Marketing Switzerland, Germany & Austria at the beginning of this year.

Roland Busch to succeed Marcel Klaus as CFO
The successor to current Chief Financial Officer Marcel Klaus (51), who will be leaving the company at the end of July to seek a new career challenge, is Roland Busch (49), currently Head of Finance & Information Management at Lufthansa German Airlines. He will assume his new duties on 1 July.

“We are delighted that, in Roland Busch, we have secured the services of such a skilled financial professional,” says CEO Harry Hohmeister. “Not only can Roland draw on extensive experience of the airline business; he also brings to us his strongly entrepreneurial approach.”

Roland Busch, who studied business administration in Münster and went on to earn a doctorate at the University of Osnabrück, originally joined Lufthansa’s Corporate Controlling in 1991. After holding various subsequent functions he was named Head of Corporate Audit in 2001. This was followed by further appointments to Head of Corporate Finance and to Head of Finance & Human Resources (and a member of the Executive Board) at Lufthansa Cargo. He was appointed to the Executive Board of Lufthansa German Airlines as Head of Finance & Human Resources in June 2009, and assumed his present position there as Head of Finance & Information Management last year.

The two appointments bring the SWISS Management Board back to full numbers. The new Management Board will consist of Harry Hohmeister (CEO), Rainer Hiltebrand (COO), Markus Binkert (CCO) and Roland Busch (CFO).

“Our Board of Directors wishes the new members of our Management Board every success and satisfaction in their new capacities and the challenges they will bring,” says SWISS Chairman of the Board Bruno Gehrig. “We are convinced that, in making these key appointments, we have created a strong top-management team and have set a firm course for SWISS’s corporate future.”

Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.
Corporate Communications
Phone:  +41 848 773 773
Fax:  +41 44 564 21 27

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