Malaysia Airlines CEO To Quit After Just 1 Year Due To Undisclosed "Personal Reasons"
Christoph Mueller’s resignation comes well before the end of his three-year contract.
By Tang Ruxyn — 20 Apr 2016, 10:43 AM
Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) CEO Christoph Mueller has informed that he will be leaving the company in September this year, two years ahead of the expiry of his three-year contract
The airline said in a statement Mueller was leaving because of "his changing personal circumstances".
Mueller will serve a six-month notice period to September 2016. He has expressed his intention to the MAB board to remain with the airline as a non-executive director, the carrier said.
"We are very disappointed to lose Christoph as CEO but we fully understand his reasons and respect his need to do this," MAB Chairman Md Nor Yusof said.
malaysiakini.com
Mueller said in an internal circular that he was particularly sad to leave the company for personal reasons which are "beyond his control".
He also mentioned that this decision was a tough one as the company's efforts to improve the carrier's services was starting to show signs of success.
"I would like to express my gratitude and pride to have had the opportunity to work alongside all of you, and I thank you all for your hard work and efforts that have led us to where we are today," Mueller said.
"I am confident given what we have achieved so far, the company is now on the right track to succeed in its next phase of growth under the committed management team."
With more than 25 years of experience in the aviation industry, Mueller was hired last year, to head the turnaround efforts for the national flag carrier that was formerly known as Malaysia Airlines Systems (MAS)
Khazanah Nasional, the airline's owner, announced that it "respected and ultimately agreed with" his decision to leave, but added that they "would have wanted him to continue as planned".
MAS' chairman Md Nor Yusof thanked Mueller for putting the airline on the desired trajectory towards full recovery.
"His hard work over the last year has seen Malaysia Airlines set on a path where there has already been encouraging progress," he said.
The MAS Board is actively working to search for a new CEO he added.
Mueller, the first non-Malaysian at the helm of the national carrier, led the carrier to a profit in February. It was the company's first positive monthly result in years.
The German-born, Harvard MBA graduate, said that MAB is on track to return to full profitability by the year 2018.
“For a company that lost RM2 billion just last year, if you are able to break even for a month or so, it means the financial gap between revenue and cost has significantly closed, and that is good news that tells us that we are on the right trajectory,” he said in an interview with AP about two weeks ago.
Describing the airline as a "ship that has many leaks", Mueller said during the interview that he was pushing for hierarchies and bureaucracy to be slowly removed.