Swissport International will streamline its regional structure from nine management regions to three, reducing overhead costs and speed up decision making.
The Europe, Middle East and Africa region will be managed by Luzius Wirth, executive vice president UK and Ireland and member of group executive management.
Glenn Rutherford, who is in charge of Swissport in Australia and New Zealand, will head up the greater Asia Pacific region.
Group chief operating officer, Joe Phelan will temporarily head the Americas region until a permanent candidate is found.
The three regional heads will report to Swissport International president and CEO, Eric Born, who says: “Our refined organisational setup brings executive management closer to our customers and our operations. More accountability will be delegated into the enlarged regions. The regional heads and their management teams will take full responsibility for commercial matters.”
Senior vice president of Europe, Simon Messner will assume the role of executive vice president for performance and innovation, driving operational standards, quality, health, safety and environmental standards.
He will oversee commercial governance, and future product development, innovation and fleet management will also be his responsibility.
The existing setup of nine regional management teams will be consolidated into three areas, with the regional heads being replacing the chief operating officer on group level.
The responsibilities of the chief commercial officer will move to the regional level when the changes take effect on 1 January 2019.
As part of the scheduled succession plan, Joe Phelan and Nils Pries Knudsen will retire in the first half of 2019, but all other managers on group executive level will remain in their roles.
Born says: “Joe and Nils are very accomplished Swissport executives with extensive industry experience. On behalf of the executive management and the Board of directors, I thank them for their vital contributions over the years.
“While I understand their decisions to retire after demanding careers in a fast-moving industry, I regret that they are leaving the company and wish them both all the best for the future.”
