British Airways Announces New Senior Hires As It Looks To Boost Its Recovery From The Global Pandemic

British Airways has appointed four new leaders to its Management Committee as the airline accelerates its recovery and the delivery of its new business strategy following the most challenging period in its history.

Calum Laming becomes the airline’s Director of Business Recovery, leading its mission to rebuild its global network, resources and operations following the pandemic and ensuring the business has the resilience and agility needed in a dramatically changed aviation landscape for the years ahead. Calum is currently Chief Customer Officer at Vueling – the Barcelona-based IAG airline – and has previously held a variety of customer, brand, product and marketing roles at Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand and Etihad Airways.

Michelle Lydon has been appointed as Chief People Officer. She will shortly join British Airways from QinetiQ – global experts in defence, aerospace and security – where she was the company’s Group Human Resources Director. In her role at British Airways, Michelle will oversee the airline’s strategy for people and people transformation, learning and development, reward, strategic resourcing, recruitment, employee and industrial relations.

During the pandemic, Colm Lacy and Tom Stevens stepped up on an interim basis to the roles of Chief Commercial Officer and Director of Brand and Customer Experience respectively. Both have now been confirmed in their positions. Colm started working for British Airways in 1997 as a Finance Analyst since then held a number of finance and commercial positions. Tom joined British Airways on the graduate scheme in 2011, initially working in the procurement team before moving to the customer and operational roles. Both have been on the Management Committee since 2021 and will continue to lead the airline’s digital-first, customer-centric strategy to ensure the airline delivers for its customers as it moves out of the pandemic. 

Announcing the appointments, British Airways’ Chairman and CEO Sean Doyle, said: “I’m incredibly pleased to welcome Calum and Michelle to British Airways and confirm Colm and Tom in their roles to help us deliver our new vision for the business.

As we recover from the global pandemic, there’s never been a more important time to have a determined, ambitious and supportive leadership team that will put our people and our customers at the heart of everything we do. There’s a lot of work to do but we’re on our way and I’m confident we can create a working culture that allows our people to thrive, deliver excellent customer service and look to a sustainable future while always continuing to do what we do best – connecting Britain with the world and the world with Britain.”

Michelle Lydon starts her new role with British Airways in February, with Calum Laming joining in April.