Etihad Executive Accused Of Fake, Shocking LinkedIn Profile

I… I… I’m speechless. Suffice it to say that a certain airline executive probably isn’t having a great Monday, as flagged by View from the Wing.

Airline executive calls out other airline executive

Willy Boulter, who is the former Chief Commercial at IndiGo, just took to LinkedIn to share a post exposing another airline executive. Let me just share the main part of the post, because this is quite something:

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It seems a certain Chief Officer at a Middle East airline has created (or had another person create for him) a false LI identity to promote his reputation and gather information in a rather, shall we say, underhand way. The fraudulent profile is one “Ivander Sebastien” (already “outed” by another savvy colleague of ours) and has been used to engage me and others in the industry about our career aspirations and similar subjects. To me, he even offered to “speak” saying “Let us chat one of these days” – but somehow he ignored the number I sent him and didn’t reply for eight months, unsurprisingly I learn now, since poor Ivander is of course just a rag doll in the mind of his master. He also suggested to me a non-existent job opening (at the airline he was supposedly working for), and, of course, as Ivander, he has himself held a number of non-existent jobs at real airlines (who probably won’t be too happy about being misrepresented). Do have a look at his profile before Ivander is suddenly taken away from us, if he hasn’t already been as a result of our clever colleague’s post earlier today.

Actually this Ivander character has only one reliable feature – that he frequently and consistently mentions what a wonderful job his creator is doing: indeed, the fact that Ivander has been a LI premium member surely shows how much his creator values the puppet, and to what lengths the creator will go to embellish his immaculate image on LI – although some of his real direct reports might beg to differ with Ivander’s judgement!

Too bad both Ivander and his creator seemingly aren’t too smart. Perhaps the creator’s real job should become non-existent as a result of this astonishingly manipulative behavior, which, in my view, beggars belief, sets an awful example to younger colleagues and damages the reputation of the industry. What do others think?

(btw “Ivander” once suggested in a post that I should retire, some of my followers may recall, in a rather rude, disrespectful and cack-handed comment. Well, I guess it is unfortunate for him and his creator that I haven’t !)

Someone responds to this post with the following:

It’s interesting that Ivander’s LinkedIn comments focus on particular airlines.

Of course there’s lots about Etihad, for example: “Amazing to see the turnaround. Etihad was an airline for 18 years that made losses with teams that did not know what they were doing. It is really incredible to see what has been done over the past 2 years.”

But also positive things about TAP: “I think this shows the visionary work of the previous management team ordering 321LR’s and connecting Africa with North America; Europe with Americas.”

Positive things about Aeromexico: “Congratulations Andres Conesa. You are one of the best airline CEO’s out there.”

Less positive things about WestJet: “Real change? It’s an airline that clearly has no sense of identity or strategy. Didn’t they say a season back to cancel all flights and just focus on Calgary? Now back to doing things it did before. Directionless!!!”

And less positive things about AirAsia: “But Paul Carroll, how much of these are real numbers? I mean, there is a history of Air Asia making up numbers :).”

I wonder if there’s anyone out there who’s worked at Etihad, TAP, Aeromexico, WestJet and AirAsia?

Clearly it’s suggested that the person behind this is Etihad’s Chief Revenue Officer. To quote the announcement from when he was appointed to his current position in early 2023:

He has previously held leading positions at WestJet, Air Asia, Aeroméxico, and most recently, TAP Air Portugal, where he was the Chief Revenue & Network Officer.

I’m disappointed by “Ivander Sebastien”

I’ve often said how I think Etihad’s current management team is really smart. They’ve done an amazing job turning the airline around positively, with sustainable growth.

But now I’m disappointed. Of course I’m disappointed that someone lie, and create a fake profile in this way. But frankly I’m almost more disappointed at the level of stupidity exhibited here. Like, if you’re going to set up a fake account, at least do a good job with it.

First of all, “Ivander Sebastien” claimed to be the “Chief Customer & Experience Officer at Ethiopian Airlines,” when there’s absolutely no record of that. You’re really going to set up a fake profile, when it’s so easy to verify that this isn’t true?

Then while reportedly working at Ethiopian Airlines, posts from “Ivander Sebastien” were mainly about how amazing Etihad is, and in particular, how amazing Etihad’s Chief Revenue Officer is. Some of his comments included the following:

• “Amazing to see the turnaround. Etihad was an airline for 18 years that made losses with teams that did not know what they were doing. It is really incredible to see what has been done over the past 2 years.”
• “Arik, I love the marketing materials coming from @Etihad since you have taken over brand and marketing. Your love for destinations and routes is very clear. I like this new direction.”
• “Well done. Looking good Arik De.”
• “This is smart. Seems Etihad has really learned from the past. I love how innovative this management team is being.”
• “Well done Arik De. So many good things being done at Etihad these days.”
• “This is one of the most impressive things I have seen. Arik De, you are really building a great legacy.”
• “After being asleep, I am amazed to see the number of new things Etihad has been doing over the past few months with new management team. Congratulations Arik De and team.”

Then there are all kinds of posts from “Ivander Sebastien” putting down other airlines and executives, while praising airlines he has otherwise recently worked at, and even praising the previous management teams.

Now, let me of course acknowledge that we don’t know for sure if Etihad’s Chief Revenue Officer directly ran this account, if he had someone else do it on his behalf, or what. Regardless, “Ivander Sebastien” did a terrible job covering his tracks, or creating a believable storyline. And at the same time, if this was outsourced to someone, it was clearly someone who understood the industry very well.

Bottom line

A former IndiGo executive is accusing an executive at a Middle Eastern airline of creating a fake LinkedIn profile to promote himself and put down others. It’s pretty clear that this is referring to Etihad’s Chief Revenue Officer, given that this fake account spent a lot of time talking about how great he is (and how he’s “looking good”), and also focusing heavily on the airlines he used to work for.

This is incredibly disappointing. Etihad’s management team has been doing a great job, so I don’t know what would cause an executive to decide that this is how they should spend their time…

What do you make of this situation?