Qantas will reshuffle its executive team following the resignation of its chief customer officer and chief digital officer, including responsibility for cybersecurity.
Catriona Larritt, who was promoted from Qantas Freight executive manager when Vanessa Hudson took over as CEO in 2023, will leave Flying Kangaroo to “pursue external opportunities” at the end of the year, CEO Vanessa Hudson revealed in a note to employees.
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“I would like to sincerely thank Catriona for her significant contribution to the Group since joining in 2015, in a number of areas including Jetstar and Freight, and particularly in her role as Chief Customer and Digital Officer over the last two years,” he said.
“Catriona will finish at the end of December and I wish her every success in the future.”
In her portfolio as chief digital officer, Larritt was responsible for cybersecurity, a role that will now be assigned to Andrew Monaghan in the Risk portfolio.
“Matt Biber, Chief Information Security Officer, and his team [will be] reporting to Andrew,” Hudson said.
“Bringing together cybersecurity and risk will further strengthen governance in this critical area. This change will be made over the next month.”
Communications and corporate affairs director Danielle Keighery will assume responsibility for branding and marketing, and marketing director Petra Perry and her team will report to her.
“The other duties that currently fall under the Chief Customer Officer and Chief Digital Officer role will remain unchanged,” Hudson said.
Larritt’s resignation comes after Qantas suffered a major data breach earlier this year, in which information including names, email addresses and frequent flyer numbers of more than five million customers was stolen and then dumped on the dark web by hacking group Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters.
The July incident reportedly involved cybercriminals. using AI to impersonate a Qantas employee and then trick a customer service operator in Manila into divulging crucial information.
“Qantas is one of several companies globally that have had data released to them by cybercriminals following a cyber incident in early July, where customer data was stolen through a third-party platform. With the help of specialist cyber security experts, we are investigating what data was part of the disclosure,” Qantas said in an update to its incident notice on October 12.
“Through the Supreme Court of New South Wales, we have an injunction in place to prevent anyone, including third parties, from accessing, viewing, disclosing, using, transmitting or publishing the stolen data.
“We have also implemented additional security measures, increased training for our teams, and strengthened system monitoring and detection since the incident occurred.”
Short-term bonuses for Qantas executives, including Vanessa Hudson, were slashed during the year due to the impact the breach had on customers.
