Wayfare appoints acting CEO

16th March 2020 By Staff Reporter | news@tourismticker.com | @tourismticker

Wayfare has appointed former Qantas executive Ian Jackson acting chief executive while the hunt for a permanent placement continues.

Ian Jackson

Jackson will join Wayfare this week as current chief executive Richard Lauder prepares to leave the role in May.

A senior Qantas’ manager since 2005, Jackson was most recently the airline’s executive manager of customer operations based at Sydney – a position he left in 2018.

In that role, he was responsible for more than 10,000 staff ground and inflight operations across the airline’s business, said Wayfare in a statement on Monday.

Wayfare chair Jim Boult said the company’s board had begun the process of recruiting a new chief executive but it could take six to nine months to complete.

“Given the challenges being faced by the industry at present, the Wayfare board believes we need strong and experienced leadership in the business throughout this period. A fortuitous opportunity has arisen for us to appoint a skilled and proven person as acting chief executive,” said Boult.

“Ian’s expertise in creating and leading customer-focused teams that deliver innovative customer outcomes fits perfectly with Wayfare, and we are very pleased that he is available to come on board at this time.”