Newsmaker: CWT Names Anderson CEO

Carlson Wagonlit Travel in April announced that its board of directors named executive vice president and CFO Douglas Anderson as president and CEO of the company. Anderson succeeds Hubert Joly, who became president and CEO of CWT majority shareholder Carlson Cos. on March 1.

Initial priorities for Anderson include carrying out the company's growth strategy for the next three years and addressing the travel management company's position in the face of the current economic slowdown, which has spurred Anderson to reevaluate CWT's operational cost structure.

Anderson, who is based in Paris, is well-versed on the CWT 2010 three-year growth plan, which was unveiled earlier this year (BTNonline, Feb. 14). He was the main architect of the plan, even beginning its development weeks prior to formally joining CWT in March 2007 after previous executive positions at UPS Logistics Group and Geneva-based SITA Group. Anderson was selected to his newest post after a three-month board search.

Due to current macroeconomic conditions and a year-over-year decelerated increase in revenue and volume during the first two months of 2008, Anderson, who described himself as an "operational CFO," plans to "capture economies of scale that are available in the operating model." One way of doing that is to hold operating costs "flat or in slight decline," he said. "During the next 12 months, as things slow down a bit, I'll be looking to accelerate those initiatives because that will be important for us going forward, as we don't have as much top-line growth as we've had the last couple of years."

Other ways Anderson will attempt to offset the slowdown include investing in new technology and standardizing processes throughout the organization, thus eliminating redundancies and some manual processes, such as billing and invoicing.

While Joly still has a prominent role in CWT as chair of its board, he said, "I have been very clear with the team that Doug is the new CEO and he will be doing a number of things differently. The priorities for CWT don't change necessarily because the CEO changes. Clearly, you want the CEO to drive the development of the strategy and the responsibility as the chair of the board is to make sure the strategy makes sense. The view is that Doug is in the leading role at CWT. There is no doubt about that."