American Airlines announced today that Kerry Philipovitch, Senior
Vice President of Customer Experience, will retire from the airline
at the end of 2019. Philipovitch’s retirement is part of a
long-planned personal desire to move into a new phase of her life
and the airline has been preparing for this day for some time.
“Kerry is one of the very best leaders I have had
the privilege of working with,” said American Airlines President
Robert Isom. “She is a great advisor, consummate team player and
champion of those we serve inside and outside the company. She led
the industry’s largest reservations system cutover and has been at
the helm of numerous efficiency projects critical to our
integration. American is far better because of Kerry’s
contributions, including her work to promote passengers’ rights,
support our diversity and inclusion initiatives, and launch
innovative customer service training for team members. We will miss
her, but Kerry has more than earned the right to do what is best
for her and her family. Thankfully she has trained a stellar group
of leaders who will carry on her legacy to drive operational
excellence with the utmost care for our team.”
Philipovitch began her aviation career in 1996 as a
pricing analyst at Northwest Airlines before joining US Airways and
later American. She has held leadership roles in Revenue
Management, Network and Schedule Planning, Airport Customer Service
and Reservations. At American, Philipovitch has overseen all
aspects of the customer experience, including Airport Operations,
Customer Planning, Flight Service, Reservations, Premium Services,
Service Recovery and Cargo. Philipovitch will remain with the
airline through the end of the year to assist with the
transition.
Operations and Commercial
RealignmentWith this announcement, American is realigning
its Operations and Commercial teams around four key pillars of the
business: Operations, Network Strategy, Revenue and Customer
Experience. The following four leaders will assume responsibility
for these teams and each individual will report to Isom:
- David Seymour, Senior Vice President of Operations
- Vasu Raja, Senior Vice President of Network Strategy
- Don Casey, Senior Vice President of Revenue
- Kurt Stache, Senior Vice President of Customer Experience
“This is an opportunity to sharpen our focus on the
key parts of our airline: running a reliable operation, expanding
the world’s best network, maximizing all aspects of revenue to
ensure American thrives forever, and delivering a superior customer
journey as we create a world-class customer experience,” continued
Isom. “This restructure puts innovative and extremely capable
leaders at the forefront of these initiatives.”
OperationsDavid Seymour will
expand his responsibilities and assume leadership for all of
American’s operations, furthered by two key changes to his
organization. Jim Butler has been named Senior Vice President of
Airport Operations and Cargo. Butler previously led the airline’s
International Airport Operations and Cargo teams and will now
assume responsibility for the airline’s domestic airports.
In addition, Devon May has been named to the new
role of Senior Vice President of American Eagle and Operations
Planning. May will have responsibility for American’s regional
operation and will lead the airline’s operations planning
teams.
Both Butler and May will report to Seymour. Kevin
Brickner, Senior Vice President of Technical Operations; Kimball
Stone, Senior Vice President of Flight and Integrated Operations
Center and Ron Thomas, Vice President of Safety, will continue
reporting to Seymour. Together this group will move past American’s
integration milestones and work to optimize the airline’s
operational excellence.
Network StrategyVasu Raja is being
promoted to Senior Vice President of Network Strategy. In this
role, he will retain his responsibilities for American’s global
network and will assume oversight of alliances and partnerships.
Joe Mohan, Vice President of Alliances and Partnerships, will now
report to Raja. This team will focus on maximizing the efficiencies
of American’s current network and partnership structure, while
ensuring American continues to provide customers with the
industry’s preeminent network.
RevenueDon Casey will lead the
team responsible for the airline’s revenue. Jim Fox, Vice President
of Pricing & Yield Management, will continue reporting to
Casey. Casey’s oversight will expand to include the sales and
distributions teams, working closely with Alison Taylor, Senior
Vice President of Global Sales & Distribution, who will
now report to Casey. This new structure will facilitate improved
long-term customer partnerships and agility in responding to the
ever-changing market needs of American’s customers. Combining
these two best-in-class revenue organizations will also ensure
revenue outperformance and faster speed to market and delivery of
the airline’s revenue initiatives.
Customer ExperienceKurt Stache
will assume responsibility for the many touchpoints along the
customer journey. As part of this new structure, Jill Surdek is
being promoted to Senior Vice President of Flight Service. Surdek
served as Vice President of Flight Service for the past three
years, and over that time, managed one of the airline’s largest
integration projects to bring all 28,000 flight attendants onto one
operational platform. With this project’s successful completion,
Surdek will now play a key role in leading the airline’s customer
experience strategy.
Additionally, Alice Curry, Vice President of
Customer Care, and her team will move to this group. Surdek and
Curry join Janelle Anderson, Vice President of Global Marketing;
Bridget Blaise-Shamai, Vice President of Customer Loyalty and
Insights and John Gustafson, Vice President of Digital Customer
Experience, in reporting to Stache. Together this team will focus
on creating a seamless customer journey and improving guests’
likelihood to recommend American.
Operations and Commercial Leadership
TeamIsom’s leadership team will include his four direct
reports of David Seymour, Vasu Raja, Don Casey and Kurt Stache, as
well as Alison Taylor and Devon May. This team will bring the
necessary visibility and accountability to the efforts and
initiatives needed to excel in operations, revenue, network and
customer experience.
“American’s team members are what set us apart,”
concluded Isom. “They’re the difference between just a flight and
an experience. Our job is to give them the tools to care for
customers on their journeys with us, and we know with this superb
group of six leaders at the helm, we will deliver.”
David Seymour has more than 20
years of major airline operations experience at America West, US
Airways and American. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the U.S.
Military Academy and a Master of Management degree from
Northwestern University. Seymour is an Army Ranger School graduate
and served as an officer in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He
serves as a director of the Congressional Medal of Honor
Foundation.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/22f58567-90e2-4b2a-8f66-0034308c6cc3
Vasu Raja has been with American
for 15 years and has worked in Sales, Corporate Planning, Revenue
Management and Network Planning and Analysis. He holds a bachelor’s
degree from The University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree in
teaching from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from Georgetown
University. Raja began his career with Teach for America in 1999,
and was named one of the Top 50 Executives under 50 by Diversity
MBA Magazine in 2013.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/381c1bcc-e082-4763-b55d-27e2b76bacc4
Don Casey joined American in 2000
after leading Planning at Canadian Airlines. He has overseen
American’s Revenue Management activity since 2009 and helped
develop the airline’s bilateral alliance relationships. Casey holds
a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alberta and a Master of
Science in Business Administration from the University of British
Columbia. He is the recipient of Aviation Week & Space
Technology’s Laurels Award for outstanding contributions to the
field of commercial transportation.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dbc2897b-4fc9-49a1-8fa8-ef76d2636030
Kurt Stache has 24 years of
airline management experience at American, including leadership
positions in AAdvantage Marketing, Global Sales, International, and
Strategic Alliances. Most recently he has overseen the airline’s
marketing strategy and implementation across all channels, as well
as the company’s loyalty, digital and sales organizations. Stache
holds a bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University and an MBA
from Harvard Business School.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9f4a4265-bf81-48a9-9080-0849ece4a976
Devon May has nearly 20 years of
airline experience in finance, commercial and operational
roles. Since 2017, he has overseen American’s regional
operations along with Network Planning and Alliances. Previously he
served in leadership positions at American and US Airways in
Finance and Network Planning. May holds a bachelor’s degree from
the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, and an MBA from
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/88e75505-4161-48fe-aaaf-89cabc23de99
Alison Taylor leads American’s
Global Sales team and is responsible for developing all sales and
distribution policies worldwide, as well as managing the airline’s
relationships with corporate, agent and group customers. Prior to
joining American, she held a similar role at Starwood Hotels &
Resorts Worldwide. Taylor has lived and worked in nine countries,
including more than 20 years in Asia, and is a board member of both
the Association of Corporate Travel Executives and Women In Travel
by GBTA. She holds a bachelor’s of business degree from Victoria
University in Melbourne, Australia.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/789274a5-367b-4d81-9171-e19de39f3335
About American Airlines Group
American Airlines offers customers 6,800 daily flights to more than
365 destinations in 61 countries from its hubs in Charlotte,
Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York,
Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. With a shared purpose of
caring for people on life’s journey, American’s 130,000 global team
members serve more than 200 million customers annually. Since 2013,
American has invested more than $28 billion in its product and
people and now flies the youngest fleet among U.S. network
carriers, equipped with industry-leading high-speed Wi-Fi, lie-flat
seats, and more inflight entertainment and access to power.
American also has enhanced food and beverage options in the air and
on the ground in its world-class Admirals Club and Flagship
lounges. American was recently named a Five Star Global Airline by
the Airline Passenger Experience Association and Airline of the
Year by Air Transport World. American is a founding member
of oneworld®, whose members serve 1,100
destinations in 180 countries and territories. Shares of American
Airlines Group Inc. trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol AAL and
the company’s stock is included in the S&P 500. Learn more
about what’s happening at American by
visiting news.aa.com and connect with American on
Twitter @AmericanAir and
at Facebook.com/AmericanAirlines.
Corporate Communications817- 967-
1577mediarelations@aa.com
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