John Borghetti will leave Virgin Australia next month – nine months earlier than previously announced – as newly-appointed CEO Paul Scurrah steps into the corner office.
Experienced tourism and transport and logistics exec Scurrah has previously racked up years at both Qantas and Ansett Australia, helped establish Regional Express Airlines (REX) and more recently held down executive roles at Flight Centre, Tourism Queensland and Queensland Rail.
Virgin Australia Group Chairman Elizabeth Bryan predictably praises Scurrah as "a highly regarded business leader in Australia and his appointment is testament to his strong leadership credentials which include more than 20 years’ experience in transport, logistics, travel and aviation."
Scurrah will officially punch the clock from 25 March 2019, and will divide his time between Virgin's operational headquarters in Brisbane, where Scurrah lives with his wife and two children, and the airline's corporate headquarters in Sydney – so the airline's Sydney-Brisbane travellers should expect to see a lot of Scurrah as he shuttles back and forth.
John Borghetti will step down as CEO on 25 March 2019, ending nine years in a role which has seen him transform the airline from a low-cost carrier to a more capable challenger to Qantas through the introduction of competitive domestic and international business class and a string of new-look domestic airport lounges.
A 45 year veteran of the aviation industry, Borghetti – the son of working class Italian immigrants to Australia – famously started his career in the Qantas mailroom in 1973, aged 17 years.
He delights in recounting how he first set his eyes on a job with Qantas: sitting in a theatre with his best schoolmate to see the James Bond film Live and Let Die, the 007 flick was preceded by a featurette showing the Mardi Gras in Rio de Janeiro "showing all these beautiful, half-naked women," Borghetti has often recalled.
Borghetti and his friend quickly agreed they needed to get to Rio – but how? Working for an airline would be the means to a cheap ticket to Brazil.
Over the next 35 years the driven and hard-working Borghetti had climbed Qantas' corporate ladder one rung at a time from mailboy to sales rep to Executive General Manager – where he assumed responsibility for the airline's debut of the Airbus A380 and the creation of its award-winning first class lounges and invitation-only Chairman's Lounge.
But in July 2008 he lost out on the prized role of Qantas CEO to then-Jetstar chief Alan Joyce.
Borghetti resigned early the following year, and in May 2010 took the helm at Virgin Blue, embarking on transformation to turn the decidedly low-cost airline into a Qantas competitor with a broader customer base than just the bottom end of the leisure market.
With the airline quickly rebadged as Virgin Australia, Borghetti oversaw the launch of domestic and later trans-Tasman business class, upgraded its east-west Airbus A330 business class seats – a move which arguably spurred Qantas to its launch its Airbus A330 Business Suite product – developed a lounge network including the invitation-only The Club, and relaunched the Velocity frequent flyer program to sharpen its edge against the powerhouse Qantas loyalty program.
In more recent times Borghetti saw the airline's US-bound Boeing 777 fleet upgraded with the same business class as the A330s and pushed expansion into Asia with flights from Melbourne and Sydney to Hong Kong.
A famously well-dressed workaholic and car enthusiast, Borghetti can at least look forward to spending some time tinkering with and driving a few favourites from his Porsche-heavy collection cars, although he's expected to take on a number of boardroom director roles in his post-Virgin life.
kimshep
6 Feb, 2019 09:38 am
Best wishes to John. He hasn't had the easiest time over the past 24-36 months with the table changing rapidly (and regularly) in the aviation marketplace. Whatever the international issues, he has firmly moved Virgin in the domestic market to a full-service alternate QF offering. Equally of interest is where his career will take him next?
Somewhat curious was that Paul was a bit of a 'dark' horse, given the speculation of such luminaries as Mark Dunkerly (ex HA CEO, senior Westpac department heads etc) as being on the short list. However, it is now Paul's time to shine - and he could well be ready to take Virgin Australia and it's associates on a highly interesting flight into the future.
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WelshGit
6 Feb, 2019 11:04 am
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kimshep
6 Feb, 2019 12:53 pm
Perhaps, a little too 'harsh', although everyone is entitled to their opinion. Virgin was never going to be an easy task for any CEO to walk into, irrespective of what the market thought. John had the immediate challenge of changing the Brett Godfrey culture from day 1. He had the vision to see that being stuck in a 'pincer' point between a full-fledged QF and a low-cost Jetstar was not the best house on the block. Yes, in those days, the Virgin board lacked depth and experience. John set about changing not only the culture and the Board (by bringing new people on board) but by also changing the raison de etre regarding how to best bring dollars through the door ie: the move towards a full service carrier.
Whilst you may critique his management style and direction, it is also pertinent to remember the major changes in in Virgin's shareholder structure - one that has changed dramatically over the past few years .. and a number of occasions. Having to deal with the competing interests of Singapore Air, Etihad, Air New Zealand, Hainan, Nanshan and Branson would not be the envy of any airline CEO. In the main, I believe he handled the Air New Zealand fiasco well but when you are having to juggle the issue of financial downturns at Etihad and Hainan, you have a situation that makes shareholder funds tight and expectations on returns more than difficult. I don't know that John 'didn't care' - more of a case that you can only do a certain amount with limited finances. It is clearly established that he earned his stripes at QF - and is more qualified than all of the armchair CEO's. Frankly, one of his greatest achievements was to manage such a disparate shareholder assortment and do it for such a long time.
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