TAP management enters ‘new phase’ as new board elected
On Thursday evening, the company informed Portugal's Securities Markets Commission (CMVM) of the approval by shareholders at a general meeting of the election of the members of TAP's corporate bodies.
Portugal’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing on Friday stressed that the management of TAP, the national airline, had entered a “new phase” after its new board of directors, chaired by Manuel Beja, was approved on Thursday.
“With the holding of the general meeting of TAP SGPS, the airline has taken another decisive step on the path that we all hope will be that of its recovery,” reads a statement issued by the ministry about the company, which has been controlled by the Portuguese state since a deal with private investors last year saw them relinquish control.
“With the election of the new corporate bodies, TAP will be led by a management team with a recognised track record in the sector, to whom the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing wishes every success on the demanding path ahead,” the statement goes on. “Their success will be the success of TAP and also the success of the national economy.”
The statement also says that this is also the time to “publicly recognise the dedication and work of enormous quality carried out by the outgoing board, in particular by Ramiro Sequeira, who, as interim chief executive, led the company through a very tough period, leading the construction of the company’s restructuring plan and the signing of emergency agreements with all TAP and [subsidiary] Portugália trade unions.”
Sequeira, according to the statement, is to continue at TAP as chief operations officer, as will Alexandra Reis, who is to keep her position as chief corporate officer.
The ministry also thanked the non-executive members of the board who are now leaving the company, in particular the outgoing chairman, Miguel Frasquilho, who it said “has always served TAP and the country loyally, tirelessly and dedicatedly.”
The airline, it added, “will with the decision on the restructuring plan by the European Commission enter a new phase of its life and the government is counting on everyone to ensure that the next page of this history of our airline is full of success.”
On Thursday evening, the company informed Portugal’s Securities Markets Commission (CMVM) of the approval by shareholders at a general meeting of the election of the members of TAP’s corporate bodies for the four-year term 2021-2024.
Beja, who has a degree in Mathematics Applied to Economics and Management and experience in the area of information technologies, succeeds Frasquilho as chairman of the board.
As well as Sequeira and Reis, the other board members are now Christine Ourmieres-Widener, João Gameiro, José Manuel Silva Rodrigues, Silvia Mosquera González, Patrício Ramos Castro, Ana Teresa Lehmann, Gonçalo Monteiro Pires and João Pedro da Conceição Duarte.
The new officers of the general meeting are António Macedo Vitorino as chairman and David Fernandes de Oliveira Festas as vice-chairman, while the names of Pedro Miguel Nascimento Ventura, Tiago Aires Mateus and Luís Manuel Delicado Cabaço Martins were approved for the company’s remuneration committee.
The new TAP SGPS executive board for 2021-2024, which is proposed to be appointed at the first meeting of the board of directors that has now been elected, is to be led by Ourmières-Widener.
TAP has also appointed a state aid monitoring committee for the four-year period, chaired by Patrício Ramos Castro and with Ourmières-Widener and João Gameiro as members.
Baker Tilly, PG & Associados, SROC, S.A. was chosen to chair the fiscal committee and Sérgio Sambade Nunes Rodrigues, Maria de Fátima Damásio Geada and José Manuel Fusco Gato (as an alternate member) were tapped as members of the same body.
