12 July 2006


The Web
Business Today



Air Malta appoints chief officer commercial

Air Malta has announced the appointment of Dr Brock Friesen as Chief Officer Commercial. Dr Friesen will be working under the direction of Chief Executive Officer Joe Cappello and will be responsible for organizing, directing and controlling all the operations of the Commercial Division with the specific task of increasing revenue for the airline.
Dr Friesen has been engaged from outside the organisation. He brings with him over 20 years of senior international airline management experience in most aspects of Commercial. Dr. Friesen joins Air Malta from Star Alliance, a major global airline alliance, where he was Vice President, Finance and Strategy. Prior to Star Alliance in Frankfurt, Dr Friesen was a Vice President with Canadian Airlines International in Vancouver (now merged with Air Canada). His various executive positions at Canadian included: International Marketing, International Planning, and Alliances. Dr Friesen’s background includes business strategy, marketing and sales, revenue planning and forecasting, restructuring, network planning, fleet optimization, changing airline business models, and traffic rights negotiations. Earlier in his career, Dr Friesen was a Senior Energy Policy Advisor with the Government of British Columbia.
Canadian-born Dr Friesen is a PhD graduate of the University of Waterloo in Canada and has an MBA from IMD in Switzerland. He has lectured at University level on energy and natural resources economics and invented and patented the first single-engine hovercraft. Dr Friesen is married with one daughter and is a keen sailor.
Commenting on this appointment Joe Cappello said, “This appointment is another important step in our plans for the airline going through its restructuring. Dr. Friesen brings with him a thorough knowledge of strategy, revenue generation and marketing. This, coupled with his academic and professional background, makes him the ideal candidate to spearhead Air Malta’s Commercial Division. He will be entrusted to lead this critical division to meet the fierce competitive challenges we are facing.
He will be focusing on revenue generation, cost control and in making the airline more customer centric. The task is huge but we are confident that with the support of all stakeholders Air Malta will be in a stronger position to meet the challenges ahead. We are pleased to welcome Brock onboard Air Malta.”



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