Flair Airlines hires new chief commercial officer

The Edmonton-based low-cost carrier has named Garth Lund as chief commercial officer, a role that spans leadership of marketing, brand, customer experience and communications.

As CCO, Garth will also have a hand in network planning, scheduling, pricing and revenue management, and sales and distribution.

He joins from Europe’s Wizz Air, the ultra-low-cost carrier from which Flair picked its new president and CEO, Stephen Jones, in October.

Sarah Segal takes over as CEO of DavidsTea

The chief brand officer has succeeded her father, company co-founder Herschel Segal, as chief executive of the Montreal-based, loose-leaf tea retailer.

In addition, CFO Frank Zitella has been made president. The new leaders took over on Dec. 16, the day after the company reported its third-quarter results.

Both Segal and Zitella were key to DavidsTea become a digital-first organization better suited to new consumer behaviours, according to Herschel Segal. They helped the company transition away from physical retail and into a more ecommerce and wholesale-focused tea brand, most recently through the launch of a seasonal subscription box, part of the restructuring plan it laid out after filing for creditor protection last year. It has since closed all but 18 of its more than 200 North American stores as part of the process.

Those efforts appear to be paying off. For the quarter ending in December, it reported its second-consecutive quarterly profit, with $22.1 million in ecommerce and wholesale sales, an increase of 145.5% over the prior year.

Spin Master plans exec succession

The toy and entertainment company has begun a transition process that will see co-founders Ronnen Harary and Anton Rabi step down as co-CEOs later this year.

In December, Spin Master named Max Rangel (whose CV includes an SVP role at SC Johnson and 22 years at P&G) as global president starting in January. Effective April 2021, he will assume the new position of global president and CEO.

The C-suite changes follow a broader reorganization within the Toronto-based company, with three existing executives taking up new roles as president of three “creative centres” (or divisions), namely toys, entertainment and digital games. It also follows Spin Master’s recent expansion into new categories and IPs, such as Harry Potter and Rubik’s Cube.