Air transport IT provider SITA has appointed Barbara Dalibard (left) as the new CEO with effect from July 1, 2016. Dalibard will replace the current CEO Francesco Violante, who will step down after 13 years of leading the company, 10 of which were spent as CEO.
Dalibard joins SITA from France’s national rail company, SNCF, where she served as CEO of SNCF Voyageurs, a division that manages all passenger traffic.
Prior to joining SNCF in 2010, Dalibard spent seven years with telecoms company Orange Business Services, and prior to that a number of years with France Telecom, where she held a variety of senior management positions.
Dr Omar Jefri, chair of the SITA board and executive vice president corporate management and regulations at Saudi Arabian Airlines, said, “Dalibard has the ideal combination of executive management experience and leadership to strengthen the role of SITA in the air transport community and we are looking forward to working with her. SITA is well positioned for the future thanks to the strong leadership of Francesco Violante, who over the past decade has dramatically transformed the organization, merging previously separate entities into a single company that delivers award-winning IT solutions to the industry, touching every aspect of the travel journey. On behalf of the SITA board, I would like to thank Francesco for his dedication and for his vast contribution to the industry. The board looks forward to his continued strong leadership until Dalibard joins SITA in July.”
Jappe Blaauw, president of the SITA council and chief transformation officer for airline operator KLM, said, “Dalibard is an experienced executive who brings a tremendous amount of knowledge to the role, having worked across a number of businesses in IT telecoms and travel. She understands SITA’s business well and brings deep comprehension of enterprise communications with a strong understanding of the stakeholder demands of the travel sector and is ideally positioned to lead SITA into the future.”
