{"id":75556,"date":"2026-07-08T20:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/07\/08\/who-is-anko-van-der-werff-air-canadas-incoming-ceo\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:29:14","slug":"who-is-anko-van-der-werff-air-canadas-incoming-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/07\/08\/who-is-anko-van-der-werff-air-canadas-incoming-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Anko Van der Werff, Air Canada&#039;s incoming CEO?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WestJet CEO Tour\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k3UHYOQka1U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> The results of Air Canada\u2019s executive search are in and the new chief executive , who starts early next year, is widely considered a proven change agent with broad experience at airlines around the world . Although the company said its succession plans have been in the works for a while, it seemed the process was expedited when its current CEO, Michael Rousseau , resigned in the spring amid controversy over his inability to speak French. Here, the Financial Post looks at the experience, qualifications and linguistic ability of the man set to take the helm of Canada\u2019s biggest airline . <\/p>\n<h2>Who is Anko Van der Werff?<\/h2>\n<p> <span>The 50-year-old Dutchman grew up in a small village near Groningen. He has a master\u2019s degree in law from Leiden University and completed executive studies at Harvard Business School, Air Canada said in a press release.<\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>Van der Werff is married with children, <\/span><span>and on an April episode of the Dutch wellness podcast Health for Wealth described himself as a \u201cfamily man,\u201d a world traveller and lifelong sports enthusiast who stays active by playing football, tennis and padel. In a LinkedIn post last year, he said football is a \u201chuge passion\u201d and that he plays with a team from his current company, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) every week.<\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>\u201cIn many ways \u2026 I consider myself in a sense quite boring, because it\u2019s really just family, and work, and then there are sports,\u201d he said on the podcast.<\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<h2>What is his previous experience?<\/h2>\n<p> <span>In its press release, Air Canada said that with his 25-plus years in the industry, Van der Werff brings an \u201cexceptional breadth of international aviation experience.\u201d <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>He started his airline career in management at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (now Air France-KLM S.A.) before holding senior commercial roles at Qatar Airways and serving as executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Aerom\u00e9xico. <\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>Before joining SAS in 2021, he was president and chief executive of Colombia-based Avianca S.A. In a note, RBC Dominion Securities Inc. analyst James McGarragle said Van der Werff inherited the \u201cstructurally troubled carrier in mid-2019\u2033 and that his \u201cAvianca 2021\u201d turnaround plan \u201cmeasurably improved\u201d the airline before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>\u201cThis is a nuanced but important distinction \u2014 the bankruptcy was exogenous, not a management outcome,\u201d McGarragle said.<\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<h2>Does the new CEO speak French?<\/h2>\n<p> <span>Canada\u2019s largest airline, headquartered in Montreal, is subject to the Official Languages Act, which requires it to deliver services in both English and French. <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>The company said in its press release that its performance criteria for the new CEO included the ability to speak French. Van der Werff speaks Dutch and Spanish fluently and can communicate in French, English, Italian and Swedish at varying levels.<\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>Air Canada\u2019s outgoing CEO Rousseau announced his retirement back in March amid criticism in Quebec for his failure to speak French after he delivered an English-only message of condolence following the fatal collision at New York\u2019s LaGuardia Airport.<\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Air Canada taps Scandinavian Airlines exec as new CEO<\/li>\n<li>Air Canada&#8217;s Rousseau affair shows the high cost of a seemingly &#8216;soft&#8217; skill<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What are analysts saying about the appointment?<\/h2>\n<p> <span>\u201cAlthough we believed that Air Canada\u2019s CEO search process was also considering internal candidates, Mr. Van der Werff appears to be highly qualified with extensive international airline industry experience and his successful turnaround of SAS is a clear positive,\u201d Cameron Doerksen, analyst at National Bank of Canada Capital Markets, said in a note.<\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>McGarragle from RBC called him a \u201ccredible, experienced aviation executive with a genuine track record of navigating complexity\u201d and his hiring is a \u201cnet positive\u201d for Air Canada.<\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>He said Van der Werff joined SAS in 2021 during a period of \u201cdeep pandemic distress\u201d and led the airline \u201cfrom near-collapse through a controlled bankruptcy to emergence with new ownership, a renewed cost structure, and recovering profitability.\u201d<\/span><span> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <span>\u201cHis two most recent stints \u2014 at Avianca and SAS \u2014 demonstrate a consistent pattern of disciplined transformation execution under difficult circumstances, which is exactly the skillset (Air Canada\u2019s) board was looking for,\u201d McGarragle said.<\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <em>\u2014 With files from Denise Paglinawan<\/em> <\/p>\n<p> <em>\u2022 Email: jswitzer@postmedia.com<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Summer travel demand &amp;apos;still very strong&amp;apos; despite increased fuel costs\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fSbkTuQbF9s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/>Who is Anko Van der Werff, Air Canada&#039;s incoming CEO?<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2026-07-08 20:29:14<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The results of Air Canada\u2019s executive search are in and the new chief executive , who starts early next year, is widely considered a proven change agent with broad experience&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/75557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}