WIZZ AIR ANNOUNCES PROMOTIONS AND UPDATE TO LEADERSHIP TEAM
Geneva, 21 January 2016: Wizz Air Holding plc ('Wizz Air'), the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, announced today an expansion to its Leadership Team and a temporary leave of absence.
John Stephenson, Executive Vice President of Wizz Air, has been taken ill and hospitalized. He will be out of the office for an unspecified period of time. No further information will be released concerning his condition out of respect for the privacy of John and his family. CEO József Váradi stated, "We are all concerned for John's well-being and wish him the best for a full and speedy recovery."
In the interim, Chief Operations Officer Diederik Pen and Chief Commercial Officer György Abrán will report directly to the CEO.
The company also announced today the nomination of two new officers to join its Leadership Team, effective 01 February 2016.
David Morgan, currently Chief Pilot at Wizz Air, has been appointed Chief Flight Operations Officer, reporting to the Chief Operations Officer. Johan Eidhagen, currently Head of Brand and Marketing, has been appointed as Chief Marketing Officer, reporting to the Executive Vice President.
As Chief Flight Operations Officer, David's primary responsibility will be to provide leadership to the key operational departments within elements of Flight Operations including Flight and Cabin Operations, Operations Planning and the Operations Control Center.
David, 51, joined Wizz Air in 2008 based in Katowice, Poland and became Fleet Captain in 2010. A year later he was promoted to his current position as Chief Pilot. Prior to Wizz Air, David began his aviation career in the armed forces of the United Kingdom and Australia. His career has taken him around the world including five years as a management pilot at the iconic Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia and five years for BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia. He is a native of Cardiff, Wales, and is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Johan joined Wizz Air as Head of Brand and Marketing in January 2015. His primary responsibility will be to exploit existing and emerging marketing and sales tools to help drive revenue generation across the network. His group is also responsible for enhancing the WIZZ brand and ensuring consistent, efficient and effective communication to customers through various channels.
Prior to WIZZ, Johan, 41, built an extensive sales and marketing career at Nokia over the past 15 years. After several challenging roles, he became the Managing Director of the Scandinavian region in 2011. During his career at Nokia, he held a number of global and regional Marketing positions based in Finland, the United States and Sweden. Johan is a native of Stockholm and is a DIHM Marketing graduate from the IHM Business School in Stockholm, Sweden.
József Váradi, Wizz Air Chief Executive Officer said: "David and Johan have demonstrated their strong leadership and world-class competencies in leading their departments, and we are confident they will create additional capacity in the Wizz Air Leadership Team. This is a great promotion for David and Johan as well as for the whole organization as an example of promoting strong talent from within, where smart and hard work, commitment and dedication result in career progression into senior management."
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ABOUT WIZZ AIR
Wizz Air is the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, currently operates a fleet of 65 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft and offers over 400 routes from 23 bases, connecting 118 destinations across 38 countries. At Wizz Air, a team of approximately 2,600 aviation professionals delivers superior service and very low ticket prices making Wizz Air the preferred choice of 19.2 million passengers in 2015. Wizz Air is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker: WIZZ and is included in the FTSE 250 and FTSE All-Share Indices
For more information: |
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Investors: |
Iain Wetherall, Wizz Air: |
+41 22 555 9873 |
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Media: |
Doug Oliver, Wizz Air: |
+36 70 777 9342 |
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Edward Bridges / Jonathan Neilan, FTI Consulting LLP: |
+44 20 3727 1017 |
