Next Qantas CEO: Vanessa Hudson

[Mwenenzi]

QF newsroom --. QANTAS GROUP ANNOUNCES CEO SUCCESSION

The Qantas Group has today announced Vanessa Hudson will become the next CEO and Managing Director, taking over from Alan Joyce when he retires in November 2023.

Ms Hudson is currently the Group’s Chief Financial Officer and has worked in a number of executive positions across the Group over 28 years, including Chief Customer Officer and Senior Vice President for Qantas across the Americas and New Zealand. Ms Hudson will continue in her current role while also being CEO designate and joining the Board, before taking over as the company’s 13th CEO in 103 years following the 2023 Annual General Meeting. An announcement on a new CFO will be made in the months ahead.
<snip>
About Vanessa Hudson
Vanessa Hudson joined Qantas in 1994. Since then she has held a variety of senior commercial, customer and finance roles across the Group, in Australia and overseas, including Executive Manager of Sales and Distribution; Senior Vice President for Qantas across the Americas and New Zealand; Executive Manager of Commercial Planning; and Executive Manager for Product and Service.

In these various roles her responsibilities ranged from sales channels, revenue management and network planning, to transformation in catering, airports and network. In February 2018, Vanessa was appointed to the role of Chief Customer Officer and became a member of the Group Management Committee. In October 2019, Vanessa became the Group’s Chief Financial Officer and held this portfolio through the COVID crisis, when sudden border closures saw revenue evaporate in a matter of weeks. Careful management through this period – including equity raising, debt raising and asset sales – saw the company make it through the crisis and ultimately emerge with a stronger balance sheet than pre-COVID.

Vanessa has a Bachelor of Business and was admitted as a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1994. She lives in Sydney with her husband and two daughters.
<snip>

 

[Chalkie]

You can't look too much at the previous position held to determine her focus - her job before CFO was Chief Customer Officer. She's held just about every position in the company - clearly they were grooming her for the CEO position (and she's worked at QF for 28 years).

That may very well be, but there's nothing in any of QF's corporate docs or market announcements that leads me to believe that with the change of CEO there will be any material change in the level of customer service delivered to customers.

 

[RichardMEL]

btw I wanted to add to my above comments about VH (hey, that's our registration prefix )....

of course had the Board gone fully external to appoint someone there's of course, absolutely NO guarantee that someone outside of QF would do a better job, make positive changes and all of that (just ask any of those airlines who hired Hogan for example). It may have caused short term enthusiasm that a changed leadership vision of a total new person coming in MAY lead to real change but of course that's never guaranteed.

so again, time will tell. I personally am not too sure what this means and time will tell. I'm seeing some chatter that various very senior staff will probably exit very shortly as a result of this - which potentially could be a good thing (after all, it's not just a CEO who creates a culture, but the entire senior team that re-enforces it down through their departments) - so there could be some dramatic change coming up either way.

it's a wait and see for me - with not great expectations.

 

[JessicaTam]

Whilst I have no issue promoting from within, what I would like to see in any senior exec is experience in other businesses. Hudson doesn't have the depth of industry experience that Joyce had when he started as QF group CEO.

 

[Bundy Bear]

btw I wanted to add to my above comments about VH (hey, that's our registration prefix )....

of course had the Board gone fully external to appoint someone there's of course, absolutely NO guarantee that someone outside of QF would do a better job, make positive changes and all of that (just ask any of those airlines who hired Hogan for example). It may have caused short term enthusiasm that a changed leadership vision of a total new person coming in MAY lead to real change but of course that's never guaranteed.

so again, time will tell. I personally am not too sure what this means and time will tell. I'm seeing some chatter that various very senior staff will probably exit very shortly as a result of this - which potentially could be a good thing (after all, it's not just a CEO who creates a culture, but the entire senior team that re-enforces it down through their departments) - so there could be some dramatic change coming up either way.

it's a wait and see for me - with not great expectations.

Does that mean Virgin should keep their ear to the ground to see who is leaving and offer them a position.

 

[JessicaTam]

Does that mean Virgin should keep their ear to the ground to see who is leaving and offer them a position.

Or make sure they don't lose anyone in the process!

 

[RichardMEL]

Does that mean Virgin should keep their ear to the ground to see who is leaving and offer them a position.

oh I'm sure VA has been watching with interest and waiting for this to see which way the wind might blow and potentialy cherry pick people they may target (given the background of their current CEO).

 

[dylarr]

Here’s the full presser that was held this morning for anyone interested:

IN FULL: Qantas announces Vanessa Hudson as CEO Alan Joyce's successor | ABC News

Vanessa Hudson will take over the reins at Qantas, when Alan Joyce retires in November. Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Read more: https://ab.co/3LnQ2W2ABC N...

www.youtube.com

 

[Quickstatus]

benefit of the shareholders... and AJ

Ok corrected - you're welcome

we have not had any dividends

Should have got in 2015/16-2018/19 when they paid dividends.
Additionally,
AJ engineered massive capital returns via share buybacks which actually had a large component of dividend in it.
In the 2019-2020 55 million share buyback, each share buyback was a $4.37 per share fully franked dividend and a $1.19 capital return = $5.56/share
That also had the effect of increasing the relative value of the remaining shares which goes back to the first point

Ostensibly, the share buyback was to manage "shareholder capital". So one one level the capital return represents excess capital that could not be deployed efficiently (economically) One would argue that it could have been used to underwrite a newer fleet but thats another story. However during the Rona19-21 shareholders were not tapped on the shoulder for capital. Why? because that would dilute the share price and AJ's haul

For me, shareholder benefits should come as a result of efficient and proper company management, not financial wizadry.

 

[Kangol]

Vanessa Hudson picked over Olivia Wirth. Who knows if this is a good or bad thing...

 

[Quickstatus]

C'mon, lets stop beating around the bush. We only want to know if Ms Hudson is going to give us a DSC offer right?.

 

[DejaBrew]

C'mon, lets stop beating around the bush. We only want to know if Ms Hudson is going to give us a DSC offer right?.

I can picture a new thread already…

 

[justinbrett]

That may very well be, but there's nothing in any of QF's corporate docs or market announcements that leads me to believe that with the change of CEO there will be any material change in the level of customer service delivered to customers.

Who wants change?

I think that's where this thread is divided in two groups. Those not happy with the announcement weren't happy with QF to begin with.

I'm thinking there's much greater risk of QF getting worse with a new CEO, so the internal hire (of someone more than qualified) is a safe pair of hands IMO. I don't think QF's perfect, but when I look at similar airlines over the last 15 years, QF has fared rather well.

I also look at AJ's tenure for the entire time (2008-now), not just since 2020.

 

[Quickstatus]

since 2020

Ill give AJ the benefit for that period.
His capital management, while decried by many as financial engineering to benefit him in particular rather than renewing the fleet, I think shielded the company from having even more aircraft sitting around draining cash. Buying back shares at a reasonable price (even though the share price at the time was falling) was better than having to sell aircraft or borrowing against these assets - both with no floor to support a reasonable valuation.

Will Ms Hudson continue the "don't spend capital" mantra?

 

[Cognac]

However during the Rona19-21 shareholders were not tapped on the shoulder for capital. Why? because that would dilute the share price and AJ's haul

Yes they were.

There was $1.36B raised from institutional investors, and a further $71M from regular shareholders during its SPP (announcement from June 2020 as part of their covid recovery plan).

 

[Cognac]

I find it mildly amusing that Ms Hudson is focusing on restoring the brands image and improving the customer experience. I know there's the context of "since covid" in that, but it does kind of imply that her predecessor did not focus on either of those things.

 

[jakeseven7]

Congratulations Vanessa and great to see the diversity in the top leadership of AU listed companies bumping up again (albeit way too slowly!).

 

[roman91]

I'm probably showing my age here, but Alan Joyce has been CEO of Qantas all of my adult life, and there haven't been many changes to the company's loyalty programs other than a few additions here and there.
Anyone have any thoughts on how someone from a finance background will lead the company? Are we to expect more price hikes and perhaps even a rise in cost of rewards flights? It's been a while.

 

[kookaburra75]

I agree with the comments about adopting a 'wait and see' approach with Vanessa.

I hope she can live up to her statement about "...We are very up-front in terms of recognising that the customer experience was not where we wanted it to be, we have invested in an enormous amount of money," she said.

Interesting article on ABC news by Sue Lannin (ABC Senior Business Reporter), titled Qantas lost $3 billion more than it made under Alan Joyce

Live: 'The timing is right': Outgoing Qantas boss says airline is 'strong' as it appoints first female CEO

Banks and financial markets are predicting the RBA will keep the cash rate on hold at 3.6 per cent for another month at today's meeting, with the ASX opening lower. Follow the day's events with our live blog.

www.abc.net.au

It will certainly be a tough gig for Vanessa - and I hope she suceeds.

 

[milehighclub]

Here’s the full presser that was held this morning for anyone interested:

IN FULL: Qantas announces Vanessa Hudson as CEO Alan Joyce's successor | ABC News

Vanessa Hudson will take over the reins at Qantas, when Alan Joyce retires in November. Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Read more: https://ab.co/3LnQ2W2ABC N...

www.youtube.com

Not at all awkward when Richard said - "The board firmly feels Olivia is the right person to take Qantas forward"