Air Malta restructuring officer appoints friend and colleague to HR post

Anderson’s appointment was announced in an internal email only days after Hart’s appointment as the beleaguered national air carrier’s restructuring officer, One News reported yesterday.

Neale Anderson is already a director in a consultancy company directed by Ray Hart,Air Malta’s chief restructuring officer. The two are friends to the airline’s new CEO Peter Davies.

Australian born Ray Hart, who has worked with Peter Davies before, was appointed on 19 May and is backed by vast experience in business restructuring and implementation. A chartered accountant by profession, he has previously been involved in several airline projects.

Peter Davies’ appointment was revealed by MaltaToday in late March, after he had been head-hunted to take over the airline as it faced a drastic restructuring programme. It has since been confirmed that the package accepted by Davies reaches some €500,000 yearly. His appointment came after a hasty exit by the Air Malta designate chief executive Cor Vrieswijk, who resigned in early March after being appointed to the position back in December 2010. Lasting only three months in his position, the departure raised eyebrows and questions over how the government was handling the restructuring process.

A qualified pilot, Peter Davies has also held operational and marketing positions in Qantas and as Managing Director at XP Express Systems, a subsidiary of KLM.

Together with Louis Farrugia as new chairman, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech also appointed Alan Caruana, Alec Mizzi and Roderick Chalmers as new directors to the board at Air Malta. Alan Caruana is Tonio Fenech's head of secretariat, and has been appointed as the national Airline's Executive Director, being granted full powers to run the company. Caruana was known to be the main negotiator with low-cost carriers Ryanair and Easyjet, two companies that have been directly blamed by Ernst & Young as the main contributors to Air Malta's crisis.

Alec Mizzi, son of property magnate Albert Mizzi and former chairman of Air Malta, is a director on a number of businesses. Two other new board members at Air Malta are Bank of Valletta Group Chairman Roderick Chalmers and businessman Alec Mizzi.