Deutsche
Lufthansa AG's board on Wednesday appointed deputy chairman Christoph Franz to
succeed departing chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber, effective Jan. 1, 2011.
Lufthansa on Wednesday also
appointed Lufthansa Cargo unit CEO Carsten Spohr to assume Franz's role and
lead the Lufthansa German Airline division.
Franz
joined Lufthansa in 1990, serving in a number of strategic and sales roles in
Germany, France and Turkey, and eventually became a member of then-chairman and
CEO Jürgen Weber's staff. He left Lufthansa in 1994 for Deutsche Bahn AG,
holding several roles at the German
national railway company, including CEO of the passenger transport division. In 2004, Franz became CEO of Swiss International
Airlines, later acquired by Lufthansa, and last June, he was appointed as
Mayrhuber's deputy chairman and CEO of the German airlines division.
Mayrhuber
in a statement said, "With Christoph Franz at the helm and his broad
wealth of experience, foresight and determination to implement change, our
company will continue to be able to react to future challenges with the
necessary speed and flexibility."