Carsten Spohr

Carsten Spohr (born 16 December 1966) is a German airline executive. Since May 2014 he has been the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lufthansa.[1][2]

Carsten Spohr
Born (1966-12-16) 16 December 1966
Wanne-Eickel, West Germany
NationalityGerman
Alma materKarlsruhe Institute of Technology
OccupationBusinessman
EmployerLufthansa
Children2

Education

After graduating with a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Karlsruhe (now part of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Spohr obtained a commercial pilot's license at Lufthansa Flight Training in Bremen and the Airline Training Center Arizona.[2] Spohr continues to maintain this license until the present day. His license allows him to fly the Airbus A320.

Career
Carsten Spohr addressing staff from Lufthansa Group at Seeheim, Germany in April 2019

After gaining his commercial pilot’s license, Spohr enjoyed a brief role at Deutsche Aerospace AG after enrolling in the company’s management training programme. Following this, Spohr joined Lufthansa in 1994.[3] Between 1995 and 1998, he served as the personal assistant to the CEO of the company. After this role, he moved on to head various regional partnerships at Lufthansa, for example in 1998, he became head of regional partner management. He was then soon appointed to lead the group’s passenger airline strategy. In 2007, he was made CEO of Lufthansa Cargo.[4] In 2011, in recognition of his loyalty to the company, he was invited to join the executive board.[2]

On 1 May 2014 Spohr took over from Christoph Franz as Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. During his time as CEO there have been poor industrial relations, with a number of strike actions, due to the push to expand Lufthansa's low-cost airline Germanwings.[1] In 2020, Spohr was temporarily assigned the portfolio for digitisation and finance.[5] According to his profile on Bloomberg, his annual compensation amounts to around €2.7 million.[6]

Spohr described the Germanwings Flight 9525 disaster as "the darkest day for Lufthansa in its 60-year history".[7]

In May 2014, Spohr was one of a number of business executives invited to the White House by U.S. President Barack Obama in a meeting aimed at extending job opportunities from international companies to the U.S.[8] During the Hannover Messe in April 2016, he was among the 15 German CEOs who were invited to a private dinner with Obama.[9] Since 2013, Spohr has accompanied Chancellor Angela Merkel on a total of three state visits abroad,[10] including to China (2014)[11] and Abu Dhabi (2017).[12]

Other activities

Corporate boards
  • Lufthansa Technik, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (since 2014)
  • ThyssenKrupp, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2013)[13]
  • Oetker Group, Member of the Advisory Board (2014-2018)[14]

Non-profits

Personal life

Spohr is married and has two daughters. He and his family currently live in Munich.[2] Spohr’s wife Vivian is head of Lufthansa’s Help Alliance which runs aid projects in numerous countries abroad.[19]

gollark: But why? Calculators are fairly uncool.
gollark: Mine at least supports an amazing nine slots and has some of the weird quirks not present.
gollark: Calculators' memory things seem so badly designed.
gollark: Infinite legos don't do much on their own; infinite lego + some subset of physics maybe.
gollark: Well, yes, which makes sense because it's a generic basic calculator.

References
  1. Clark, Nicola (8 December 2014). "Lufthansa Chief Carsten Spohr Defends Airline's No-Frills Push". nytimes.com. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  2. "Carsten Spohr - Biography" (PDF). Lufthansa Group. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 March 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  3. "Carsten Spohr: Lufthansa". European CEO. 15 June 2015.
  4. "Carsten Spohr: Lufthansa". European CEO. 15 June 2015.
  5. Emma Thomasson (June 26, 2020), Lufthansa digital, finance executive Dirks to leave Reuters.
  6. "Carsten Spohr: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. 30 March 2015.
  7. "Lufthansa boss says past hours 'darkest in 60-year history'". ITV News. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  8. "Carsten Spohr: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. 30 March 2015.
  9. Hans von der Burchard (April 25, 2016), POLITICO Pro’s Morning Trade: Breaking bread with the president Politico Europe.
  10. Christian Schlesiger (September 8, 2017), Siemens-Chef Kaeser am häufigsten bei Delegationsreisen dabei Wirtschaftswoche.
  11. Ralf Schuler and Henrik Jeimke-Karge (March 7, 2014), China-Reise: Mit diesen Managern reist Merkel ins Reich der Mitte BILD.
  12. Peter Maushagen (May 5, 2017), Lufthansa CEO says next move in Air Berlin talks up to Abu Dhabi Reuters.
  13. Supervisory Board ThyssenKrupp.
  14. Advisory Board Oetker Group.
  15. Board Baden-Badener Unternehmer-Gespräche (BBUG).
  16. Board of Trustees European School of Management and Technology (ESMT).
  17. Presidium Federation of German Industries (BDI).
  18. Board of Trustees Rheingau Musik Festival.
  19. "Carsten Spohr: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. 30 March 2015.
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