Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti to step down

Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti to step down
By Alexandra Coulton


Virgin Australia’s CEO and managing director, John Borghetti has decided to step down.

According to a release on the ASX, Borghetti advised the board not to renew his contract post 1 January 2020, allowing the airline enough time to find a new CEO and smoothen the transition.

Borghetti, who has worked in aviation for 40 years including for Virgin’s rival Qantas, will have been with the company for a decade by the time of his departure.

“The board and I are grateful to John for providing a generous period of time for the search for the CEO and an appropriate transition of leadership,” Chairman of the Virgin Australia Group, Elizabeth Bryan said.

“The board will now commence a global search for a successor while John will remain focused on leading the group.”

“I would like to acknowledge John’s enormous contribution to the Virgin Australia Group to date and thank him for his continued dedication.”

Borghetti said it is a privilege to serve as CEO of the Virgin Australia Group and to lead a wonderful team of 10,000 people.

“By notifying the board of my intentions now, it provides them with appropriate time to conduct a thorough recruitment process and for me to support the transition,” Borghetti said.

“In the interim, I look forward to continuing in the role of CEO and I remain focused on delivering the goals of the Virgin Australia Group.”

Business Insider Australia reports the company’s underlying profit before tax 142 per cent in its latest half-year results, which was its highest in 10 years.

“This demonstrates the success of our long-term strategy to reposition the business and strengthen its financial foundation; however there is more work ahead to ensure we continue to deliver,” Borghetti said at the time.

“Based on the Group’s recent positive performance trajectory, current market conditions and fuel headwinds net of foreign exchange for the second half, we expect the Group’s underlying performance for the second half of the 2018 financial year to improve compared to the Group’s underlying performance for the second half of the 2017 financial year.”

Borghetti has not yet given a reason for his departure, but last year alone he was paid $5,567,821 according to Business Insider, and to be honest if someone gave us that much money we’d probably quit our jobs and go on a permanent holiday.

So we assume that’s his plan too.

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