Lufthansa Gets New Chairman and CEO

In its meeting today, the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG appointed Deutsche Lufthansa AG Deputy Chairman Christoph Franz as the successor to Wolfgang Mayrhuber as Chairman and CEO of the Lufthansa Group. The change at the helm of the Group will take place with effect from January 1, 2011. At the same time, the members of the Supervisory Board appointed Carsten Spohr to the Executive Board of the Lufthansa Group. As head of Lufthansa German Airlines, he will also occupy the position of CEO and Chairman of the Lufthansa German Airlines Board. As his successor as Chairman and CEO at Lufthansa Cargo AG, Karl Ulrich Garnadt was proposed. Garnadt is currently responsible for Hub Management & Passenger Services on the Lufthansa German Airlines Board.

Although Lufthansa will not officially bid farewell to Mayrhuber until December, Supervisory Board Chairman Jürgen Weber said that during his almost eight-year tenure as Chairman and CEO of the Group, Mayrhuber had successfully laid decisive foundations for the future of the company with the expansion of the Star Alliance, the establishment of the Airline Group and the development of new markets.

As the future Chairman and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Christoph Franz will be responsible for the Lufthansa Group and its five business segments: the Passenger Airline Group, Logistics, MRO, IT Services and Catering with a total of over 116,000 employees worldwide. Carsten Spohr will assume responsibility for Lufthansa German Airlines and its over 37,000 staff worldwide on the Executive Board of the Lufthansa Group. Lufthansa German Airlines is structured in the following divisions: Operations, Marketing & Sales, Passenger Services & Hub Management, and Finance & Human Resources.

Christoph Franz was born on May 2, 1960 in Frankfurt am Main and began his career at Lufthansa in 1990. He was initially involved in strategic, sales and controlling projects in Germany, France and Turkey. From 1992 to 1994 he served as a member of the staff team under then-Chairman and CEO Jürgen Weber. In 1994, Franz moved to Deutsche Bahn AG, where he served in various executive functions. His time there culminated in his appointment as a member of the Executive Board and CEO of the company’s passenger transport division. On July 1, 2004 Franz was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer at Swiss International Air Lines AG. On June 1, 2009 he was appointed Deputy Chairman to Wolfgang Mayrhuber on the Lufthansa Group’s Executive Board and also assumed the position of Chairman on the Lufthansa German Airlines Board.

Carsten Spohr was born on December 16, 1966 in Wanne-Eickel. After obtaining a degree in industrial engineering, he went on to acquire his commercial airline pilot’s licence at the Lufthansa Pilot School in Bremen and Phoenix. He completed a management training course at Deutsche Aerospace AG, Munich, before returning to Lufthansa in 1994. Upon his return to Lufthansa, he was initially in charge of recruiting, before becoming personal assistant to the Chairman and CEO of Lufthansa from 1995 to 1998. In August 1998 he assumed responsibility for Lufthansa’s regional partnerships in Europe. In February 2000, he became Vice President Alliance with the responsibility for managing and coordinating Lufthansa cooperation partners worldwide. In July 2003 he additionally assumed responsibility for Lufthansa Passenger Airlines’ strategy and airline holdings. In October 2004, Spohr was appointed to the Executive Board of Lufthansa German Airlines. In that capacity, he was responsible for hub management, cabin crews and human resources at Lufthansa German Airlines. The Supervisory Board of Lufthansa Cargo AG appointed Spohr CEO and Chairman of Executive Board at Lufthansa Cargo AG with effect from January 15, 2007.