Wizz Air announced an expansion to its Leadership Team and a temporary leave of absence.
John Stephenson, Executive Vice President of Wizz Air, has been taken ill and hospitalized. He will be out of the office for an unspecified period of time. No further information will be released concerning his condition out of respect for the privacy of John and his family.
CEO József Váradi stated: “We are all concerned for John’s well-being and wish him the best for a full and speedy recovery.”
In the interim, Chief Operations Officer Diederik Pen and Chief Commercial Officer György Abrán will report directly to the CEO.
The company also announced today the nomination of two new officers to join its Leadership Team, effective 01 February 2016.
David Morgan, currently Chief Pilot at Wizz Air, has been appointed Chief Flight Operations Officer, reporting to the Chief Operations Officer. Johan Eidhagen, currently Head of Brand and Marketing, has been appointed as Chief Marketing Officer, reporting to the Executive Vice President.
As Chief Flight Operations Officer, David’s primary responsibility will be to provide leadership to the key operational departments within elements of Flight Operations including Flight and Cabin Operations, Operations Planning and the Operations Control Center.
David, 51, joined Wizz Air in 2008 based in Katowice, Poland and became Fleet Captain in 2010. A year later he was promoted to his current position as Chief Pilot. Prior to Wizz Air, David began his aviation career in the armed forces of the United Kingdom and Australia. His career has taken him around the world including five years as a management pilot at the iconic Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia and five years for BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia. He is a native of Cardiff, Wales, and is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Johan joined Wizz Air as Head of Brand and Marketing in January 2015. His primary responsibility will be to exploit existing and emerging marketing and sales tools to help drive revenue generation across the network. His group is also responsible for enhancing the WIZZ brand and ensuring consistent, efficient and effective communication to customers through various channels.
Prior to WIZZ, Johan, 41, built an extensive sales and marketing career at Nokia over the past 15 years. After several challenging roles, he became the Managing Director of the Scandinavian region in 2011. During his career at Nokia, he held a number of global and regional Marketing positions based in Finland, the United States and Sweden. Johan is a native of Stockholm and is a DIHM Marketing graduate from the IHM Business School in Stockholm, Sweden.
József Váradi, Wizz Air Chief Executive Officer said:
“David and Johan have demonstrated their strong leadership and world-class competencies in leading their departments, and we are confident they will create additional capacity in the Wizz Air Leadership Team. This is a great promotion for David and Johan as well as for the whole organization as an example of promoting strong talent from within, where smart and hard work, commitment and dedication result in career progression into senior management.”