Stephen Pearse joins CAPA as managing director; new Innovation Team and organisation established

Announcing the appointment, Peter Harbison, CAPA executive chairman, said, "We're delighted Stephen has agreed to join us to lead our management team. CAPA has been growing very rapidly over recent years and we've reached a stage where we need to establish a platform for our next phase of expansion. Stephen brings a wealth of aviation and business experience and is a highly articulate and experienced leader. These attributes place Stephen uniquely to help CAPA continue its high growth path - along with positioning the business to take advantage of new opportunities. We look forward to moving along with him - as well as continuing to have a lot of fun.

"We've reached a size where we need to be a bit more structured, but I can promise all of our Members that we won't lose any of the flexibility and responsiveness that we pride ourselves in delivering. To lock this in we've established a new CAPA Innovation Team, to be headed by Derek Sadubin, to ensure that this constant evolution continues. There are some great new products in the CAPA pipeline and we'll shortly be rolling them out.

"We're still an agile and creative company, with a dedicated team, aware always that we need to adjust and constantly update, in line with the needs of our Members.

"All the CAPA team in Australia, and other points in Asia Pacific, the UK, India and the US join with me in welcoming Stephen to help continue the charge."

Stephen said, "I am really looking forward to joining CAPA and to working with Peter and the team. You have already achieved so much with CAPA. It has a fantastic reputation and has already achieved a huge amount; I am looking forward to becoming part of the team and helping take the company on to even greater heights."

Peter Harbison will remain as executive chairman. Derek Sadubin will head the new CAPA Innovation Team; and Liz Pinczewski, who heads CAPA's editorial team, will take on a broader management role, while retaining much of her editorial responsibilities.

Some background on Stephen Pearse:

Stephen has spent the vast majority of his career in the aviation sector, having initially joined United Airlines in the UK in 1995, where he was responsible for the airline's marketing and activity as a founding member of Star Alliance. After completing an Executive MBA at London Business School, Stephen was transferred overseas by United first to NZ and then Australia to manage the airline's business and operations.

After successfully reshaping United's operation during the recovery period post 9/11, as well as chairing both the Australian Star Alliance Steering Committee and the Board of Airline Representatives Australia (BARA), Stephen subsequently joined Emirates as their inaugural VP for Australia, overseeing a period of tremendous growth in both reputation and revenue for the Australasian arm of the Emirates Group through to 2010.

Seeking new challenges Stephen next undertook various consulting and start-up roles related to the travel industry before heading the CEO Forum Group in late 2013. The Forum is a small executive business networking and information services practice for the CEOs of multinational organisations operating in Australia. It focuses on building relationships with senior international executives and working with them in providing information and insights to help them better perform their roles on behalf of their parent companies.

This recent experience has given Stephen a broad and practical insight into the challenges now facing businesses and their leaders across a wide variety of industry sectors.

About CAPA - Centre for Aviation

Established in 1990, CAPA - Centre for Aviation is a global research, market analysis, data and information services group. We are the leading provider of independent aviation market intelligence, analysis, reports and data services, covering worldwide developments on a daily basis.

Through our high level events, published analysis and CAPA TV we offer an unrivalled level of industry thought leadership across the entire spectrum of commercial aviation.

CAPA Members also receive a personally customised selection from over 350 daily news articles, as well as online access to comprehensive industry data and company profiles. CAPA also produces Airline Leader - the bi-monthly strategy journal distributed to 25,000 industry leaders globally and a range of CAPA Reports and presentations on key industry issues and trends. The largest collection of current CEO interviews and aviation executive commentary is available via CAPA TV.

CAPA's C-level aviation and corporate travel summits are held in key markets around the world, bringing together the key stakeholders of the global commercial aviation industry.


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