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? Well, Bloomberg reports on who the likely next CEO of Air Canada will be, and it’s not who I would’ve expected.
In this post:
SAS CEO Anko van der Werff may become next Air Canada CEO
Reports suggest that Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) CEO Anko van der Werff is the frontrunner to become the next CEO of Air Canada. 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’d pick up more fluent French much faster than Rousseau.
Let me of course emphasize that no final decision has been made, so it remains to be seen how this actually plays out.
My take on Anko van der Werff becoming Air Canada 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 seems likely that if van der Werff were to become Air Canada CEO, we’d see some pretty radical changes. Air Canada’s stock has been trading at around half of its pre-pandemic levels, and the company’s financial guidance remains suspended.
I have to imagine that if van der Werff is selected, it would be a clear message from the board that a “turnaround” is needed. Now, what that entails would remain to be seen, but I suspect it would 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 if an outsider were appointed CEO, I have to imagine there could also be 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 has in his current role as SAS CEO; Air France-KLM wants to take a controlling stake in the airline, and the company would 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 an a lot of airline executive turnover and changes, so it’ll be interesting to see how all of this continues to evolve.
Bottom line
With Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau having recently been fired, one big question has been who will become the next CEO. Bloomberg is reporting that SAS CEO Anko van der Werff is the frontrunner for this role. Interestingly, he doesn’t appear to be fluent in French, which was a major criteria that was being considered.
I suspect that hiring someone from outside the company for this role wouldn’t be taken too kindly by existing executives, some of whom are very good at their jobs.
What do you make of the prospect of Anko van der Werff becoming Air Canada’s next CEO?
Great pick!
So how bad of new is this for Aeroplan?
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...
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.