Emirates’ Tim Clark Could Postpone Retirement, Joining IAG’s Willie Walsh And Delta’s Paul Jacobson Amid COVID-19

It is not just airlines rescheduling during COVID-19. So too are their executives.

Industry titans due to retire this year are postponing their departures in order to provide continuity and avoid transitions during critical times and restructuring.

The latest is Sir Tim Clark, who is open to staying with Emirates past the June retirement date he announced last December.

“I have basically said I will stay for the time that it takes the management group that I am working with to get a way forward and then we’ll see after that how it goes on,” Clark told the National.

“I am probably fairly useful still because I have the experience and my instincts,” he said.

Clark has been president of Emirates since 2003 and joined the airline in 1985 during its founding.

“When the time is right, and I think everything is okay, I will just carry on” with my retirement plans, he said.

Clark’s contemporary Willie Walsh announced in January he would retire as IAG CEO in March. First on Walsh’s retirement agenda was visiting a pub.

“At midnight I’m handing in the keys,” he said light-heartedly at the end of February. “I’ll be wandering around London looking for somebody to have a drink with. But stay out of my way unless you want some trouble.”

Two weeks later the mood rapidly changed as Europe saw coronavirus spread across the continent and become a global crisis. Walsh postponed his retirement. He had been due to leave in about 10 days.

“As we respond to COVID-19, Willie, Luis and the board of IAG have decided that management stability across the Group should be a priority in the near term,” IAG Chairman Antonio Vázquez said at the time.

That allowed Walsh’s successor, Luis Gallego, to remain as Iberia CEO and provide continuity at the group’s second-largest airline.

Retaining leaders who know their business may be the best airlines can have given the unprecedented nature of COVID-19. As Clark said, “It’s a difficult one because no one has been in this position ever in the airline industry today.”

Delta
DAL
Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian last month requested CFO Paul Jacobson to rescind his retirement, which he announced in February effective at the end of the year. Jacobson said yes to Bastian, extending his tenure as CFO that started in 2012.

“I personally asked him to reconsider, and he’s graciously agreed,” Bastian said last month.

Whereas Clark and Walsh suggest they will postpone retirement in the short-term, Bastian said Jacobson could remain at Delta for considerably longer.

“We can all be heartened by the fact that Paul has chosen to stay with Delta not only as we rebuild, but for many years to come as we continue our climb,” Bastian told employees.

One high profile executive change was a shock.

Lufthansa CFO Ulrik Svensson was told by his doctors in April to stop working immediately, according to CEO Carsten Spohr.

“It is particularly painful to have to do without one of my closest colleagues in recent years,” Spohr said at Lufthansa’s annual shareholder meeting this week.

Lufthansa redistributed Svensson’s duties across six executives rather than appoint a new CFO amid the crisis.

Spohr paid tribute to Svensson during the meeting. “You never spared yourself and you have achieved so much for our Lufthansa. The successes of the past few years are above all your successes. We all say thank you.”

Chinese aviation is exiting the depths of the crisis. China Eastern last month announced its new VP would be former Air China COO Liu Tiexiang.

Also in Asia, Cathay Pacific was seeking external candidates to replace Martin Murray as CFO. The search started before the crisis and no management change has since been announced.