Wanted: New Cargolux CEO

Luxembourg air freight firm Cargolux is actively seeking a new CEO for when temporary boss Richard Forson returns to the executive committee.

The new candidate is expected to have CEO or COO experience, as well as experience in the field of transport, cargo or the logistics industry in the areas of marketing and sales, finance and/or operations.

Their role will be to maintain and develop marketing and sales in the air freight industry and, as such, Cargolux is seeking a fluent English speaker with possibly French or German.

Swiss headhunters Spencer Stuart, which helped find a new president for lux-Airport, has been asked to lead recruitment from now until February 12.

In Luxembourg, the Cargolux Board has set up a selection committee of three people around president Paul Helminger.

Mr Forson was appointed temporary CEO of Cargolux on January 23, 2012. It was agreed with investors HNCA he would step down to resume his former post on the executive committee. Forson had previously worked as CFO for Qatar Airways, which quit Cargolux in 2012.

Other roles are expected to change within the firm since the purchase of a 35 percent stake in the firm by Chinese investors HNCA. Already, last week Robert van de Weg handed in his resignation at the firm, citing differences with management.

Board members who are expected to be succeeded by Chinese candidates include Alphone Berns and first government advisor Tom Weisgerber. It is thought the seats will be taken by Robert Song of HNCA and Zhou Lihong, country general manager of Bank of China.

The Luxembourg State is expected to take over one of Luxair's three posts, most likely that of Paul Mousel, who could be succeeded by Robert Schaus. The latter refused to comment on the subject when contacted by the "Luxemburger Wort" on Monday.

Finally, the SNCI is expected to maintain Patrick Nickels, who replaced Gaston Reinesch at the end of November 2012.

LuxairGroup should retain its seats with Paul Helminger and Adrien Ney and bank BCEE will likely keep Jean-Claude Finck and Françoise Thoma on the board.

One of the first jobs of the new CEO, once appointed, will be to oversee a capital increase in Cargolux, limited to 175 million USD, which was scheduled to happen before the end of March.

Translated from an article by Thierry Labro