Hertz Global Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Gil West has named several former Delta Air Lines Inc. executives to key posts, continuing his overhaul of the troubled rental car giant since taking the top job on April 1.
West, who was previously chief operating officer at Delta, named Sandeep Dube as Hertz’s chief commercial officer, effective July 22. Dube worked recently at tech companies including Microsoft Corp's games developer Activision Blizzard and previously held senior roles at Delta.
Hertz also named other ex-Delta leaders to its executive team, including Henry Kuykendall as executive vice president of North America operations, Greg May as executive vice president of fleet management and Mike Moore as executive vice president of technical operations.
The new CEO is making a bet that a crew of airline industry alumni can help him turn Hertz around. Since taking over, West has focused on selling off Hertz’s fleet of Tesla Inc. electric vehicles, which have fueled heavy losses due to higher-than-expected repair costs and customer reluctance to rent them.
May will have a key role overseeing the buying and selling of rental cars, which is where the company has historically wound up in trouble. He has experience managing aircraft fleets and will now have to work with Hertz veterans in the new and used-car markets.
He has also brought in a new management team to help the company improve operations beset with higher costs compared with rival Avis Budget Group Inc. Last month, West hired former Spirit Airlines Inc. Chief Financial Officer Scott Haralson to the same job at Hertz.
The company raised $1 billion in debt last month to give it financial flexibility as West winds down the electric vehicle fleet.
Hertz shares rose 0.9% at 9:49 a.m. in New York on Monday. The stock had declined 65% this year through Friday’s close, compared with a gain of nearly 17% by the S&P 500 Index.
This article originally appeared on Bloomberg
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
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