EasyJet’s top marketer Peter Duffy departs to make way for chief data officer

EasyJet is getting rid of the chief customer officer role in favour of a chief data officer as it looks to “exploit opportunities in data”.

EasyJet

EasyJet’s chief commercial officer Peter Duffy has left the airline as part of a management overhaul that has seen new boss Johan Lundgren get rid of the top marketing position in favour of a new chief data officer role.

Duffy has been at the airline for almost seven years, joining as marketing director before being promoted to group commercial director and then chief commercial officer with sole responsiblity for revenue generation in late 2016. Prior to his time at easyJet he was marketing director at Audi UK and worked at Barclays in a number of marketing roles.

Duffy’s departure comes just two months after new CEO Lundgren took over from former boss Carolyn McCall, who has left for the top job at ITV. Duffy was seen as a possible contender for the CEO role but in the end Lundgren was brought in from TUI to run the business.

“I’m changing the structure in that I am creating the new position of chief data officer, who will report directly to myself and will further build on work we have already done with data science to exploit the opportunity of the billions of data points [we have] within the organisation,” says Lundgren, according to the Financial Times.

READ MORE: EasyJet’s Peter Duffy – ‘We can connect emotionally as well as on price’

Given the changes at the top, it is understood Duffy agreed with Lundgren that he should leave. The teams that reported to Duffy will be managed by Lundgren in the short term as the company looks to work out the best structure for areas of the business including marketing.

EasyJet says it is not expecting to make any more changes to the airline’s management in the near future. It is beginning the recruitment process for the chief data officer immediately.

The shake-up comes as easyJet saw revenues increase 14.4% in its first quarter to £1.14bn as passenger numbers increased by 8% to 18.8 million. EasyJet has benefited from struggles at rivals, with Alitalia and Monarch both collapsing and Ryanair forced to cancel thousands of flights.

 

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