Calin Rovinescu

Air Canada’s CEO Calin Rovinescu to retire in February 2021

Mr. Calin Rovinescu, the chief executive officer of Air Canada, will retire next year after leading the company for more than 10 years. The airline has long been ranked second and set to inherit the role as the industry faces a once-in-a-generation crisis.

Air Canada’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer Mr. Michael Rousseau will take control after Mr. Rovinescu resigns on February 15, 2021. The 61 years old Mr. Michael Rousseau has been the deputy chief executive officer of the Montreal-based company since December 2018 and has served as the chief financial officer of Air Canada since 2007.

Mr. Calin Rovinescu aged 65 years has been leading the airline since 2009, when the Great Recession caused huge losses to the global travel market.

He has a long history with the airline. He is a long-term partner of the Stikeman Elliott law firm in Montreal. He served as lead external counsel with Air Canada during the privatization in 1988 and rejected a hostile takeover bid for the airline from Onex Corporation in 1999.

He joined the company as the head of strategy in 2000, served as chief restructuring officer during his tenure in the bankruptcy court in 2003, and then left the company the following year to co-found the investment bank Genuity Capital Markets.

Since returning to Air Canada as CEO, he has elevated it to stable profitability, established long-term labor agreements, purchased fuel-efficient aircraft, launched a low-cost subsidiary Rouge and increased Air Canada’s revenue to a new height of $19.13 billion in 2019.

He is reputed as a skilled negotiator, as he repurchased Aeroplan at $497 million last year and last week announced a renegotiation agreement to acquire rival Transat A.T. Inc. at a price of $190 million instead of the original price of $720 million.

Air Canada’s stock will be his best-performing stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange in his ten years of leadership and its returning was exceeded 5,900 per cent by the end of 2019.

Mr. Rovinescu’s success has earned him a reward. He received a total of $12.86 million in compensation in 2019, although as of May 4, this number has been halved due to the decline in stock prices. He is also entitled to an annual pension of nearly US $800,000, but he agreed to waive his salary of US $1.4 million starting April 1, 2020, due to the pandemic.

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