Qantas names Mullen new chairman to lead board overhaul

Qantas Airways Ltd. named boardroom veteran John Mullen as its new chairman to help lead an overhaul of the airline following a string of scandals and missteps. 

Mullen, the current chair of winemaker Treasury Wine Estates Ltd. and logistics giant Brambles Ltd. — and the former chair of Australia’s dominant telco Telstra Group Ltd. — will join the Qantas board on July 1, the airline said in a statement Wednesday. 

The appointment comes after Qantas’s reputation was shredded by claims it sold tickets for thousands of flights it had already canceled, leading to the early departure of former Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce after 15 years at the helm, and Richard Goyder to flag his departure as chair. 

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission last year sued Qantas for allegedly continuing to take money from ticket sales on more than 8,000 canceled flights between May and July 2022. According to the regulator, Qantas kept selling tickets for an average of more than two weeks, and sometimes longer than a month. Australia’s High Court also ruled the carrier illegally sacked almost 1,700 ground workers during the pandemic. 

The airline was already under scrutiny for its levels of reliability and the retention of customers’ Covid flight credits, after struggling for much of 2022 as pandemic travel restrictions eased, sparking a surge in demand in for travel.  

New CEO Vanessa Hudson has already announced an extra A$80 million ($52 million) in spending to fix customer pain points, including more and better trained workers in call centers, larger numbers of seats available for air miles, and more generous support for passengers when things go awry.

“Careful management of the board renewal process has been an important part of guiding Qantas through this intense period,” Goyder said in the statement. “Vanessa Hudson and her team have made progress toward delivering better outcomes for customers, and I’m confident that momentum will continue with the guidance of new board members of such high caliber.”

Mullen said he was “conscious of the time commitment” the role at Qantas requires and will adjust his other obligations to ensure he can be “fully focused” on the position. 

Qantas also announced long-time director Nora Scheinkestel will join the board on March 1, and head the remuneration committee. She currently is a director at Origin Energy Ltd., Westpac Banking Corp. and Brambles, and has previously served on the boards of property group Stockland, explosive maker Orica Ltd. and Telstra.