THE abrupt departure of Russell Carstensen from Helloworld Travel (TD breaking news) has seen a restructure of the company’s reporting lines, with the Air Tickets division to now report to John Constable, group general manager retail and commercial.
Previously Air Tickets was under Carstensen, who was one of ceo Andrew Burnes’ direct reports.
Helloworld Travel’s Corporate division which includes QBT will now be headed up by Nick Sutherland, who is currently QBT group general manager, and will become part of the company’s executive management team.
Yesterday’s resignation marks the end of an era for the company, with Carstensen having been an integral part of Helloworld and its predecessors, under leaders including Peter Lacaze, Rob Gurney, Elizabeth Gaines and now Andrew Burnes.
He has led the Air Product division for more than a decade, and was also instrumental in QBT winning the Whole of Australian Government contract after turning around the previously loss-making division (TD 12 Dec 2014) – making him at one stage the company’s most highly paid executive (TD 28 Aug 2015).
However more recently his remuneration was reduced as part of a “recalibration” of HLO executive salaries (TD 26 Aug 16).
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Source: traveldaily