Fritz Joussen will not fulfill his contract until September 2025: The travel group TUI surprisingly announces the resignation of its CEO. There is already a successor.
The travel group TUI loses its longtime boss. The company surprisingly announced that the CEO Fritz Joussen was resigning from his position early on September 30th. The Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board is therefore proposing the previous Chief Financial Officer Sebastian Ebel as his successor. He was appointed for three years, it said.
Chairman of the supervisory board Dieter Zetsche said that Joussen's decision to leave was regrettable. He saved the company in the Corona crisis and pushed ahead with the digital transformation. "The acute crisis phase is over. We are now starting the next phase," added Zetsche. With Ebel, an entrepreneurial CEO is ready for a new start, which will focus on strengthening the balance sheet and profitable growth.
Joussen himself justified his step with the new phase for the travel group after the end of the Corona crisis, which TUI was only able to survive with 4.3 billion euros in state financial aid. "I managed TUI for almost ten years. That's a very long time," wrote Joussen in a three-page message to employees. "Now that the existential crisis is over, now is the right time for a change at the top of TUI." Ebel will lead the company back on the growth path.
Joussen joined TUI a decade ago. He took over as CEO in February 2013. His contract actually ran until September 2025. Before the corona crisis, TUI made around half a billion euros in net profit with sales of 19 billion euros and 21 million customers. The corona virus brought tourism to a standstill, so that the group temporarily stopped generating sales and posted an annual loss of three billion euros. Optimism has now returned. Despite all the operational adversities due to the lack of staff in the industry, the travel group, as announced, expects a strong summer almost at the pre-crisis level of 2019, explained Joussen.
Before his career, Joussen, who was born in Duisburg, was head of the German division of the telecommunications group Vodafone.
