Australian airline Qantas Airways Ltd yesterday named company veteran Vanessa Hudson as its first female CEO, replacing the cost-cutting Irish-Australian Alan Joyce.
Qantas, which returned to profit late last year after taking large losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Hudson would become CEO and managing director when Joyce retires in November after 15 years in the top job.
Hudson, who has been in Qantas’ executive ranks for nearly three decades, would remain in her role as chief financial officer until then, the airline group said.
Photo:AP
“I have worked for Qantas for 28 years and that excitement of the first day that I felt walking into Qantas, I feel still today,” Hudson told a news conference.
“We are in an incredibly strong position. We have got many things in the pipeline. That is not to say the past three years have not been challenging — they have,” she said.
“There will be many challenges, I am sure, ahead,” she said, adding that taking care of customers was “absolutely at the center of everything.”
Joyce, who had been expected to leave Qantas at some point this year, praised his successor as an “outstanding executive.”
“There are not many female CEOs of the worldwide aviation industry,” he told the news conference.
“And it’s a credit to this country that a gay Irish man was appointed 15 years ago to be CEO of the company, and now we have the first female.”
Joyce said he had extended his time as CEO at the board’s request to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If it had not been for COVID I would have retired a few years ago,” he said.
Qantas posted a profit of A$1.43 billion (US$958.3 million) before tax in the second half of last year, after accumulating A$7 billion in losses across the previous three years, weighed down by the pandemic.
However, under Joyce Qantas was heavily criticized by union leaders for sacking or standing down thousands of staff to keep a lid on costs at the height of the outbreak.
“After 15 years of Qantas downfall under Alan Joyce’s management, a new CEO has the opportunity to serve the hard-working people who built the spirit of Australia,” the Transport Workers’ Union said in a statement. “Current and illegally sacked workers deserve courageous management to take Qantas in a new direction.”
Qantas has aid that the restructuring, which saved the airline almost A$1 billion, was crucial to the company’s financial post-lockdown rebound.
Hudson said she looked forward to meeting with the unions and “developing a constructive relationship.”
Qantas had been upfront in recognizing the “customer experience was not where we wanted it” during the pandemic, she said.
However, the airline invested heavily in improving its performance “and it is back where we were pre-COVID,” she said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
STABLE RESULTS: Despite June’s lower consolidated revenue, second-quarter sales still reached a record high, driven by demand for chips for AI applications Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$263.71 billion (US$9.02 billion) for last month, its second-lowest monthly result this year. The world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement that its revenue last month only fared better than the NT$260.01 billion posted in February. Last month’s figure rose 26.9 percent from a year earlier, but slumped 17.7 percent from May, the company said. However, second-quarter revenue reached NT$933.8 billion, a record high for a single quarter, company data showed. The figure represented growth of 11.26 percent from the first quarter and 38.6 percent from a year earlier. Previously, TSMC said that
RSS