Virgin Australia CMO, Inese Kingsmill, has resigned, the airline’s group executive for corporate affairs has gained the marketing remit, and a new executive is in charge of the airline under a restructure revealed yesterday.
A spokesperson for Virgin Australia confirmed to CMO that Kingsmill, appointed the airline’s chief marketing officer a little less than 12 months ago, will exit the organisation following a decision to extend the remit of current corporate affairs leader, Danielle Keighery, to group executive brand, marketing and public affairs.
The changes see marketing elevated to a group-level responsibility and open up the potential for siloed marketing teams across the airlines, holiday, Virgin Velocity and TigerAir to work more collaboratively together.
Kingsmill’s other commercial responsibilities across the guest contact centre, ecommerce and Virgin Holidays have also been carved out and will remain within the Virgin Australia Airlines business. It's this division of the portfolio that resulted in her decision to leave the company.
News about the marketing realignment came as Virgin confirmed acting Virgin Australia Airlines chief, Rob Sharp, as its new group executive, second in line to overall business CEO, John Borghetti. Sharp was previously the CEO of Tiger Airlines but has spent the last four months in an acting group executive role for Virgin Australia Airlines while a permanent chief was confirmed.
In a statement, Borghetti said Sharp’s wealth of commercial expertise including specialist experience in operating in a multi-brand environment, is backed by strong operational credentials and has a track record of innovation.
“In his most recent role as CEO of Tigerair Australia, Rob did an outstanding job of establishing a profitable low-cost domestic carrier, improving its operational capabilities and customer satisfaction ratings,” he stated.
Sharp was the CEO of Tigerair Australia for more than four years. Peter Wilson is currently acting as CEO while a permanent replacement is secured.
Keighery’s expanded remit, meanwhile, was a reflection her outstanding job leading the public affairs team over the past seven years, Borghetti said.
“Danielle has more than 20 years’ experience in communication and brand leadership which will be highly valued,” he continued. “Our brand and reputation is integral to our Group’s success and Danielle’s appointment will continue to build on Virgin Australia’s position in the market.”
The appointments are effective immediately, although a spokesperson for the company said Kingsmill will stay on for a number of weeks as part of a handover process.
Your success as a senior marketing professional has much in common with your success as a leader. Both marketing, and leadership activities, depend on building trust, encouraging action, and reliably fulfilling promises that have been made.
Between further interest rate rises, inflation, empty shelves, extortionate lettuce prices, supply chain issues and the barely believable events in Eastern Europe, the past six months there’s been a cacophony of environmental factors.
Imposter syndrome. That feeling others will discover you are actually not as good as they expect, and at any point you will be exposed and ridiculed as a fraud. If you can relate to this, then you are not alone.
Invest and earn with Coinbloc .us. Guaranteed Weekly ROI, early signals, fast withdrawals among others. I recommend Coinbloc .us as on...
Hans Jensen
Explainer: What marketers need to know about cryptocurrency
Investment decisions are a big deal, so why not get some guidance? You can day-trade cryptos, BUY and HOLD and evaluate the assets with f...
Dave Sigurd
Gartner: Digital isn't enough of a superpower for CMOs anymore
I normally don’t feel comfortable investing online but because the company I worked for downsized due to the pandemic and I was one of th...
Dave Sigurd
CMO's top 8 martech stories for the week - 9 June 2022
Investment decisions are a big deal, so why not get some guidance? You can day-trade cryptos, BUY and HOLD and evaluate the assets with f...
Dave Sigurd
Creating a marketplace for wellness
A solution for an retail industry data extraction. https://e-scraper.com/usefu...
"e-Scraper" Data Extracting
Catchoftheday launches fee-based online shopping club