BMI bolsters marketing with ex-Silverjet bosses

Thresher seeks agencies to fill the place of integrated agency Poulters

Katherine%20Gershon%2C%20BMIAirline BMI has swept up two senior employees from failed business carrier Silverjet to bolster its marketing team.

Travel industry veteran Martyn Bridger, who was customer experience director for Silverjet, has been appointed as interim commercial director, while the defunct airline’s global sales and marketing director Katherine Gershon joins BMI as interim marketing director.

Gershon, who was also a Silverjet executive board member, left the doomed airline in May, just before it collapsed (MW May 22). At BMI, she will report to Bridger.

Gershon takes over from Andrew Dufty, who was general manager of marketing. He left at the end of June to join Wyndham Hotels Group as vice-president of marketing international.

Gershon joined Silverjet in September 2006 as launch and international development director before taking the title global sales and marketing director. She oversaw Silverjet’s spoof of the British Airway’s 1989 “face” ad.

The commercial director’s role at BMI has been handled on an interim basis since Adrian Parkes left late last year to join Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad.

In May BMI announced it had appointed Ian Heywood, former vice-president of global sales and distribution at Qatar Airways, to the role. However, he will not take up the post until later in the year and until then Bridger will oversee the role, which includes global marketing.