The FINANCIAL — The Air Berlin PLC Board of Directors has appointed Henning zur Hausen, Kevin Knight, Dr Matthias Kloepper and Thilo Schmidt as new members.
airberlin CEO Thomas Winkelmann said: “We welcome our new board members and look forward to them further stimulating airberlin’s repositioning. The board will benefit from the varied expert disciplines they offer.”
Dr Hans-Joachim Körber (Chairman), James Hogan (Vice Chairman), James Rigney and Johannes Zurnieden have left the Board of their own accord. Until a new Chairman is appointed, Achim Hunold will act as Interim Chairman of the Board.
After six years in his role as Chairman and reaching the age of 70, Dr Hans-Joachim Körber ended his mandate as had already been announced. The Board of Directors would like to thank Dr Hans-Joachim Körber for his many years of trustworthy cooperation and his work as Chairman, as well as James Hogan, who has worked with the Board in his role as Vice Chairman since 2012. In addition, the Board extends its thanks to Johannes Zurnieden, who presided over the Board from 2006 to 2010, and James Rigney, who had been a member of the Air Berlin PLC Board of Directors since 2012, according to Air Berlin.
The new members of the Air Berlin PLC Board of Directors at a glance:
Henning zur Hausen, General Counsel and Company Secretary at Etihad Aviation Group, is an experienced aviation expert with legal and management experience at Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Cargo, as well as Cargolux Airlines International S.A.
Kevin Knight has been Group Chief Strategy & Planning Officer at Etihad Airways since 2016 and is an internationally recognised aviation manager with more than 30 years of industry expertise. Prior to joining Etihad Airways, Kevin held leading management positions at United Airlines and Northwest Airlines in the USA.
Dr Matthias Kloepper was Chief Financial Officer at FERI AG from 2005 to 2016 and is currently an active member of various supervisory boards of leading companies in Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland. After earning a doctorate in economics, he amassed international experience, including as the Chief Executive Managing Director for Gesellschaft für Fondsanalyse (Society for Fund Analysis) and the consulting company Roland Berger.
Thilo Schmidt is the Deputy Chairman of the FASAG (Federal Aviation Security Association of Germany e.V.) and Partner at Copernicus Strategic Consulting CSC GmbH. During his career, Mr Schmidt has been a government expert at the ICAO in Montreal and Chairman of the EASA Management Board. In addition, Thilo Schmidt was also Director of the Aviation Directorate-General at the German Federal Ministry of Transport. His extensive expertise in the aviation industry will serve to support the Board of Directors.
