Karl Ulrich Garnadt Appointed Lufthansa Cargo Chairman and CEO

Karl Ulrich Garnadt (53), currently in charge of Hub Management & Passenger Services on the Lufthansa German Airlines Board, is to succeed Carsten Spohr as Lufthansa Cargo Chairman and CEO, effective 1 January 2011.

His appointment, in accordance with group custom, is initially for three years. Last September, Carsten Spohr (43) was appointed by the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa AG to the Lufthansa Group’s Executive Board and as CEO of Lufthansa German Airlines, with effect from 1 January 2011.

Additionally, the Lufthansa Cargo Supervisory Board has named a successor for Karl- Heinz Köpfle as Board Member Operations at Lufthansa Cargo. Karl-Heinz Köpfle is stepping down into retirement after 42 years of service at the Lufthansa Group on 1 April 2011. His position is to be taken over by Dr. Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht, currently employed in the Lufthansa passenger business as head of hub management in Frankfurt. Dr. Karl- Rudolf Rupprecht’s appointment to the Lufthansa Cargo Executive Board is also initially for a three-year term.

“With these new appointments to the Executive Board of Lufthansa Cargo, we are continuing our forward-looking personnel planning at management level,” said Stephan Gemkow, Chairman of the Lufthansa Cargo Supervisory Board and CFO at Lufthansa AG. “Karl Ulrich Garnadt and Dr. Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht are long-serving and experienced top managers at the Lufthansa Group. They know the airline business inside-out. With their proven logistics expertise, they are well equipped to keep Lufthansa Cargo on its successful course.”

Alongside Karl Ulrich Garnadt and Dr. Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht, Peter Gerber remains responsible for finance and human resources and Dr. Andreas Otto for product and sales on the Lufthansa Cargo Executive Board.

Karl Ulrich Garnadt has been a member of the Board of Lufthansa German Airlines since 15 January 2007. As head of the Hub Management & Passenger Services division, he is responsible for cabin crew, hub management at Frankfurt and Munich (including network planning and management), as well as all other Lufthansa stations in Germany and their direct services.

Karl Ulrich Garnadt began his career at Lufthansa as a commercial airline trainee from 1979 to 1982. After completing the three-year programme, he spent one year in Controlling up to 1983 before moving to International Route Planning and Management. From 1987 to 1991, Karl Ulrich Garnadt was based in Frankfurt as Product Manager for the Southeast Asia / Australia region. In 1991 he moved to Lufthansa Cargo as Product Manager responsible for the UK, Ireland and Northern Europe, subsequently becoming Area Manager Europe. From 1995 up to 1999, he was in charge of Network Management at Lufthansa Cargo. In October 2004, Karl Ulrich Garnadt was appointed Group Representative and Head of Hub Management Munich. In that position, he was responsible for station management, commercial management, ground services and processes as well as for the ongoing development of the Munich hub.

Dr. Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht has been Head of Hub Management Frankfurt since 1 October 2004. In that position, he is responsible for commercial management, infrastructure development, capacity and station management at the central hub in Lufthansa’s global route network. He also oversees Lufthansa ground products and processes, worldwide. After obtaining a mechanical engineering degree at Aachen Technical University, Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht was employed as senior engineer at the University’s Hydraulics and Pneumatics Institute, where he took his doctorate in 1988.

Dr. Rupprecht joined Lufthansa in Frankfurt in 1988 as assistant to the aircraft maintenance and overhaul manager in Frankfurt and subsequently held diverse managerial posts in the MRO division up to 1994. In early 1995, Dr. Rupprecht moved as Manager to Corporate Development in Hamburg. In July 1995, he was appointed deputy head of Marketing & Sales at Lufthansa Technik. From October 2000 to September 2004, Dr. Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht was Managing Director Lufthansa Technik Logistik GmbH.

See recent travel news from: Travel News Asia, Lufthansa, CEO