Who is Anko Van der Werff, Air Canada’s incoming CEO?

Anko Van der Werff started his airline career in management at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (now Air France-KLM S.A.) before holding senior roles at Qatar Airways, Aeroméxico, Avianca S.A and SAS. Photo by Handout/Air Canada/Postmedia

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The results of Air Canada’s executive search are in and the new chief executive, who starts early next year, is widely considered a proven change agent with broad experience at airlines around the world. Although the company said its succession plans have been in the works for a while, it seemed the process was expedited when its current CEO, Michael Rousseau, resigned in the spring amid controversy over his inability to speak French. Here, the Financial Post looks at the experience, qualifications and linguistic ability of the man set to take the helm of Canada’s biggest airline.

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Who is Anko Van der Werff?

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The 50-year-old Dutchman grew up in a small village near Groningen. He has a master’s degree in law from Leiden University and completed executive studies at Harvard Business School, Air Canada said in a press release. 

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Van der Werff is married with children, and on an April episode of the Dutch wellness podcast Health for Wealth described himself as a “family man,” a world traveller and lifelong sports enthusiast who stays active by playing football, tennis and padel. In a LinkedIn post last year, he said football is a “huge passion” and that he plays with a team from his current company, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) every week.

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“In many ways … I consider myself in a sense quite boring, because it’s really just family, and work, and then there are sports,” he said on the podcast. 

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What is his previous experience?

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In its press release, Air Canada said that with his 25-plus years in the industry, Van der Werff brings an “exceptional breadth of international aviation experience.” 

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He started his airline career in management at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (now Air France-KLM S.A.) before holding senior commercial roles at Qatar Airways and serving as executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Aeroméxico.  

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Before joining SAS in 2021, he was president and chief executive of Colombia-based Avianca S.A. In a note, RBC Dominion Securities Inc. analyst James McGarragle said Van der Werff inherited the “structurally troubled carrier in mid-2019″ and that his “Avianca 2021” turnaround plan “measurably improved” the airline before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

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“This is a nuanced but important distinction — the bankruptcy was exogenous, not a management outcome,” McGarragle said. 

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Does the new CEO speak French?

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Canada’s largest airline, headquartered in Montreal, is subject to the Official Languages Act, which requires it to deliver services in both English and French. 

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The company said in its press release that its performance criteria for the new CEO included the ability to speak French. Van der Werff speaks Dutch and Spanish fluently and can communicate in French, English, Italian and Swedish at varying levels. 

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Air Canada’s outgoing CEO Rousseau announced his retirement back in March amid criticism in Quebec for his failure to speak French after he delivered an English-only message of condolence following the fatal collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.