Several weeks ago, we learned how Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau would be “retiring.” This followed the Air Canada accident at LaGuardia, where Rousseau was under fire in Quebec for his inability to speak French, a consistent theme of his tenure.
Language issues aside, I’d argue that Rousseau has been a [insert slightly nicer word than “dud”] during his tenure. He has been one of the least visible airline CEOs we’ve seen in a long time, and it sure seems like the carrier has been propped up by the two Marks (Galardo and Nasr — CCO and COO, respectively).
One big question has been who will become the next CEO. Will someone from within be promoted, or will the airline hire an outsider? I recently wrote about rumors that the current SAS CEO could become the new Air Canada CEO… that has now been confirmed.
In this post:
The surprising new pick for Air Canada CEO
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) CEO Anko Van der Werff will become the next CEO of Air Canada, and he’ll take on that role by the end of January 2027. Van der Werff is an experienced industry executive — he has been CEO of SAS for around five years, and before that, he was CEO of Avianca for around three years. Before that, he held roles at Aeromexico, Air France-KLM, and Qatar Airways.
Van der Werff has been in charge of the transformation at SAS, as the carrier has gone through bankruptcy protection, and has changed alliances, as Air France-KLM has taken a stake in the carrier.
While people can disagree on the extent to which this should matter, here’s what’s perhaps the most controversial part of Van der Werff for this role — he is fluent in English, Dutch, and Spanish, and has only a basic understanding of French.
Keep in mind that when Air Canada announced it would seek a new CEO, it emphasized how the airline is “proudly headquartered in Montreal,” and that the company will “consider a number of performance criteria in assessing candidates including the ability to communicate in French.” Now, Van der Werff is a smart guy, so perhaps he’ll pick up more fluent French much faster than Rousseau, though that’s also not exactly easy to do with little time.
Here’s what Van der Werff had to say about his new role:
“Air Canada is a globally recognized airline leader. It is an honour to be chosen to lead this iconic Canadian company as it advances its ambitions and strategy, builds on its award-winning employee culture and customer value proposition, and prepares for an even brighter future. I look forward to working closely with Air Canada’s talented executive team and with all employees to fulfil our commitments to shareholders and customers. I am excited about relocating to Montréal and eager to get started.”
Meanwhile here’s what Vagn Sørensen, Chair of the Board of Air Canada, had to say:
“Our Board of Directors was impressed by the quality of experienced executives from around the world who expressed interest in the role. We are delighted to have attracted and recruited an executive of Mr. Van der Werff’s stature to lead Air Canada. He has an exceptional breadth of international aviation experience and a proven 25-year track record, including his most recent forward-looking executive leadership at Scandinavian Airlines, Avianca Group, and Aeroméxico and earlier at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (now Air France-KLM) and Qatar Airways. We are confident he will drive further value-creating growth and transformation while maintaining our commitment to disciplined capital allocation.”
My take on Air Canada’s choice for the new CEO
I’ve never met Van der Werff, but I’ve heard mixed things about him (which… take that with a grain of salt). It sure sounds to me like Van der Werff was chosen for this role because they’re planning some pretty radical changes, and not to maintain the status quo.
Heck, that’s not just speculation. Just look at the Chair of the Board of Air Canada saying that Van der Werff will “drive further value-creating growth and transformation while maintaining our commitment to disciplined capital allocation.” In other words, make us more money, but spend less!
Air Canada’s stock has been trading at around half of its pre-pandemic levels, and the company’s financial guidance remains suspended. Clearly he’s being hired as a turnaround CEO. Now, what that entails remains to be seen, but I suspect it will include some changes customers may not love.
I can’t help but find all of the industry dynamics at play here to be quite fascinating:
- Keep in mind Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith used to be president of Air Canada, and then he left to take over the top job at Air France-KLM; one wonders how differently everything would’ve played out if Smith were promoted to Air Canada CEO sooner, and the airline could’ve avoided this whole Rousseau situation
- Air Canada is an airline that has generally promoted from within, so appointing an outsider as CEO represents a major shakeup in terms of the overall management structure, as he may want to bring in some of his “own” people
- One wonders how much job security Van der Werff had in his role as SAS CEO; Air France-KLM wants to take a controlling stake in the airline, and when that happens, the company will have more of a say in who the CEO is
I think the topic of promoting from within vs. hiring an outsider is an interesting one. For an airline that needs a major culture change (like American), hiring an outsider, visionary leader who can inspire employees is 100% the right move. Meanwhile in this case, hiring an outsider who is essentially coming in for a financial transformation seems questionable, especially when you have a couple of especially competent leaders immediately below the CEO level.
It sure feels like we’re in a period right now with a lot of airline executive turnover and changes, so I’m very curious to see how this all plays out.
Bottom line
With Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau having recently been fired, one big question has been who will become the next CEO. We now know — SAS CEO Anko Van der Werff has announced he’s leaving the airline, to become the next CEO of Air Canada. Interestingly, he doesn’t appear to be fluent in French, which was a major criteria that was reportedly being considered.
I suspect that hiring someone from outside the company for this role won’t be taken too kindly by existing executives, some of whom are very good at their jobs. As customers, I also wouldn’t be too excited about him being tasked with driving “further value-creating growth and transformation.”
What do you make of Anko Van der Werff becoming Air Canada’s next CEO?
He would be wise to keep Mark Nasr close to the vest as a successor
I know it's only a detail, but Dutch naming works as follows when 'van', 'van der', 'van den', etc are part of their last name:
- When you write first name + last name, only the last name itself is capitalized: Anko van der Werff
- When only using his last name, the first letter of the 'prefixes' and the first letter of the name are capitalized: Mr. Van der Werff
'Van' means...
I know it's only a detail, but Dutch naming works as follows when 'van', 'van der', 'van den', etc are part of their last name:
- When you write first name + last name, only the last name itself is capitalized: Anko van der Werff
- When only using his last name, the first letter of the 'prefixes' and the first letter of the name are capitalized: Mr. Van der Werff
'Van' means 'from', as in 'from Chicago': whatever follows in general is a place/town/area
de/der/den (from those who speak German recognizable): different forms of the word 'the'
This concludes my Dutch lession. Thank you for your attention :)
This shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s a hopper.
He had not moved to Denmark despite Danish takeover/concentration of SAS. He doesn’t own the Stockholm house in which he has lived for some years; he had no recent interest in buying a home in Stockholm; and he didn’t relocate himself and family from Stockholm to Copenhagen or even southern Sweden. Not the signs of a man committed to remain at SAS. Will be interesting to see if his family moves this time.
Local media is reporting his French as "fine".
Ouch. Bad things to come for AC. I surely hope he doesn’t plan on taking you out of star alliance, like he did to us and now everything is terrible. Skyteam is the worst thing to have ever happened to humanity.
Air Canada leaving Star Alliance for Sky Team would be great for those of us who are stuck flying Delta. WestJet is AWFUL. Porter is interesting but isn't yet viable.
Maybe this is good for SAS because SAS is a cluster. Sure, they've improved their onboard product with the intra-Europe business class but it's not consistently implemented. They will offer business class with meals and champagne on short regional flights between Oslo and Copenhagen or Copenhagen and Stockholm but not equally long or longer domestic flights like Oslo to Trondheim. Don't get me started on the lounges and customer service. The lounges are below standard....
Maybe this is good for SAS because SAS is a cluster. Sure, they've improved their onboard product with the intra-Europe business class but it's not consistently implemented. They will offer business class with meals and champagne on short regional flights between Oslo and Copenhagen or Copenhagen and Stockholm but not equally long or longer domestic flights like Oslo to Trondheim. Don't get me started on the lounges and customer service. The lounges are below standard. The customer service is horrendous.
Its always been a Poor Mans Finnair. A new CEO isn't going to change that
The domestic routes must be very hard to operate profitably, lots of these cities are essentially small towns. The Asian routes have been screwed by the Russian airspace issue, so I don't really think that we can be too critical of them.
And Finnair are happily selling 'business light' fares to Manchester without luggage, lounge access, or even a blocked seat on the Embraer! As someone would doubtless observe, that 3-hour sector literally is a flight from HEL...
I think you should be the next CEO. That may sound like snark but I'm just following Matthew at LALF's suggestion.
I worked with Rousseau at AC before i retired. Solid Finance guy, I was surprised by his appointment to CEO. Mike is a great guy, excellent in finance but he never impressed me with people skills.
Ben, Rousseau was not just under fire in Quebec for his lack of being able to mumble a sentence or two in French, he was under fire by plenty of savvy Canadians and others, I'd say. He has resided in Quebec for 19+ years without feeling that he should acquire a functional knowledge of the majority language of his environs. And really, it is his minions at the Office of the CEO, certainly his Board...
Ben, Rousseau was not just under fire in Quebec for his lack of being able to mumble a sentence or two in French, he was under fire by plenty of savvy Canadians and others, I'd say. He has resided in Quebec for 19+ years without feeling that he should acquire a functional knowledge of the majority language of his environs. And really, it is his minions at the Office of the CEO, certainly his Board members, that should have ensured that the appropriate steps be taken to address the issue appropriately, knowing that he has previously stumbled on this very subject.
His lack of leadership, or perhaps more accurately, his staff's lack of oversight, failed him at a moment that required he address the public appropriately. There was no "overshadowing" of the accident.
Given he speaks several languages, including Spanish, picking up French would be much easier than for someone who speaks only English. Once you have studied a couple of languages, it becomes much easier to learn another. Languages are a system, and you just need to fill in the blanks, especially from a language like Spanish that has numerous similarities with French. So then the key criteria become whether the board of directors believes he is...
Given he speaks several languages, including Spanish, picking up French would be much easier than for someone who speaks only English. Once you have studied a couple of languages, it becomes much easier to learn another. Languages are a system, and you just need to fill in the blanks, especially from a language like Spanish that has numerous similarities with French. So then the key criteria become whether the board of directors believes he is the best candidate for the job.
He spoke some French, not sure how much. Or at least he did a bit when he was in Sweden around 20 years ago when he was with KLM in Sweden. And he was with AF-KL long enough that he probably realized long ago as a Dutch guy that more French would help with the French masters.
The ability to speak French should be the least of the qualifications. Find an experienced airline executive that can execute the board's plans. Frankly, Canada needs to quit catering to the French speaking Providence of Quebec. Don't get me wrong, I love going to Montreal and Quebec but that are a minority within a largely English-speaking country. Sure it would be nice if someone is bi-lingual but, again, that should be a "nice to have"...
The ability to speak French should be the least of the qualifications. Find an experienced airline executive that can execute the board's plans. Frankly, Canada needs to quit catering to the French speaking Providence of Quebec. Don't get me wrong, I love going to Montreal and Quebec but that are a minority within a largely English-speaking country. Sure it would be nice if someone is bi-lingual but, again, that should be a "nice to have" as opposed to a primary job requirement.
Your narrow-minded view of our neighbors to the north is evident. On that day at that time, it is the Office of the CEO - his staff - that failed him and failed the public at large.
van der Sloot for CEO!
I'm for van der wolf .
They need someone fluent in Cambodian , Bangladeshi , or Yoruba .
This is a clown post. Who cares whether an airline CEO is visible? The only question is whether she or he does a good job. And that doesnt require visibility
Ben isn't alone in believing that senior managers need to be the corporate equivalent of a religious leader.
That sort of thinking used to be universally popular in management and social science until maybe 20 years ago, but nowadays there's a broad consensus that leadership in complex systems/organisations doesn't, and shouldn't, come from one person at the top. The fact that a bunch of academics agree on something doesn't mean that it can be...
Ben isn't alone in believing that senior managers need to be the corporate equivalent of a religious leader.
That sort of thinking used to be universally popular in management and social science until maybe 20 years ago, but nowadays there's a broad consensus that leadership in complex systems/organisations doesn't, and shouldn't, come from one person at the top. The fact that a bunch of academics agree on something doesn't mean that it can be automatically disseminated to the average person, even when that consensus is shared with solid proportion of professionals in the field.
Senior managers are too dumb , and "jack-hammer-sounding" , to be "religious leaders"
His lack of leadership, or perhaps more accurately, his staff's lack of oversight, failed him at a moment that required he address the public appropriately. There was no "overshadowing" of the accident.
His tenure at Avianca surely was controversial - he helped sort out some immediate financial issues but poisoned the brand and they they're struggling to attract premium traffic long after they've restored the full business class service (e.g. you can regularly find one-way business class tickets from Europe to S. America for as little as €1k even if some of that goes to UX/AZ/SK/IB for a connection to a gateway- most of the competition won't...
His tenure at Avianca surely was controversial - he helped sort out some immediate financial issues but poisoned the brand and they they're struggling to attract premium traffic long after they've restored the full business class service (e.g. you can regularly find one-way business class tickets from Europe to S. America for as little as €1k even if some of that goes to UX/AZ/SK/IB for a connection to a gateway- most of the competition won't even bother with realistic one-way pricing).
SAS are doing reasonably well at the moment, but this is probably more due to their ability to access money and know-how from their new friends at AFKL than to the CEO or his management team.
I think that the language thing is a non-issue; someone who's obviously intelligent, multilingual, and has lived in a Spanish-speaking country is likely to improve their French very quickly without needing to make a huge amount of effort.
It's definitely not the worst appointment they could make. He doesn't come across as a visionary leader, but I don't think that's a problem. I think that, as long as the board maintains a clear vision around what sort of carrier they want AC to be, he's more than capable of implementing it.
Great pick!
So how bad of new is this for Aeroplan?
This is the real question.
It is very sad that the "botched" condolences and lack of Rousseau's French language proficiency greatly overshadowed the deadly crash at LGA itself and tragic deaths of both pilots.
Who knows... Maybe it was just an excuse to push him out, even if AC is not performing too bad...
No, language is a serious issue in Canada and what Rousseau did, was clearly not tolerable. Remember that even mid-level civil servants of the national government need to pass a very selective language test, before being appointed. Now, although AC is privately owned, it is perceived as "national" by the Air Canada Public Participation Act (ACPPA), which restricts foreign investors to 25%, but also has some cultural passages.
It is not a serious issue in Canada . It’s a serious issue in Quebec . The rest of us other than a very small minority outside Quebec, no one gives a rat's ass. They wanted him out and found an excuse . This is a head scratcher . As someone in a middle of a long many flight trip and is long time SE , air Canada needs a serious shake up. It is...
It is not a serious issue in Canada . It’s a serious issue in Quebec . The rest of us other than a very small minority outside Quebec, no one gives a rat's ass. They wanted him out and found an excuse . This is a head scratcher . As someone in a middle of a long many flight trip and is long time SE , air Canada needs a serious shake up. It is lazy and tattered in every way and the new Aeroplan program is awful . Maybe they see a future bankruptcy coming so getting ahead of it with this guy.
Being from Quebec I have an intimate understanding of the language issues here. The plane originated in Montreal so many passengers would have been French. Both the captain and flight attendant who was severely injured were French. Giving a a condolences video in French was a basic gesture of respect. The general sentiment here amongst French Quebeckers is that if Rousseau had delegated the recording of a French video to someone who was more at...
Being from Quebec I have an intimate understanding of the language issues here. The plane originated in Montreal so many passengers would have been French. Both the captain and flight attendant who was severely injured were French. Giving a a condolences video in French was a basic gesture of respect. The general sentiment here amongst French Quebeckers is that if Rousseau had delegated the recording of a French video to someone who was more at ease in French it wouldn't have become such an issue. It was the tone deafness of it all that they find insulting.
French cannot be learned in a short period of time. I am generally rather good at learning languages (German and English C2 level, Spanish C1), but in the case of French I needed 9 years of intense classes to reach a rather shoddy A2 level ... Therefore, I think AC needs a French native speaker, many of whom are fluent in English.