Year in Review: People of 2023
People of the Year
Each year since our founding in 2002 The Moodie Davitt Report has recognised those individuals who by their deeds, attitudes and behaviour have most advanced our industry’s cause and reputation. In this, our 21st year, our selection features men and women nominated for leadership amid crisis, thought innovation, critical social and corporate principles, and being voices of progression and positivity.
Inken Callsen
When the youthful veteran of 28 years at Gebr. Heinemann was named Chief Commercial Officer of Purchasing, Global Supply Chain and Commercial Effectiveness of the German travel retailer on 1 September, it marked far more than a well-deserved promotion.
For from that date, the former Vice President Global Supply Chain also became a member of the Executive Board – the first woman in the German retail and distribution company’s proud 144-year history to attain that status.
It may have taken a long time for such a gender breakthrough but the positive point is that it happened. Callsen’s dual appointment was as popular externally as it was internally, her standing gleaned from her success across several roles, including Director Purchasing for Perfume & Cosmetics, Fashion & Accessories and Fulfilment.
Gebr. Heinemann is on the one hand a very traditional company with long-held, well-documented family values. But under the dual CEO leadership of Max Heinemann and Raoul Spanger it is become an increasingly contemporary one. And Callsen is very much a voice of that modernisation.
Elena Sorlini
When Abu Dhabi International Airport’s much-anticipated Terminal A opened on 1 November, it brought an end to years of frustration felt by everyone involved in the project, from Abu Dhabi Airports to government, airlines, commercial partners and the local population.
The executive who managed to drive the project over the line was Abu Dhabi Airports Managing Director and Interim Chief Executive Officer Elena Sorlini. Her determination and tenacity to ensure the ultimate 1 November opening deadline was hit – in fact her insistence on it – culminated in a triumphantly smooth start-up.
This wondrous architectural, engineering and design masterpiece, replete with a hugely diverse commercial offer, has immediately commanded a place at the top table of world airports and Sorlini a deserved place in our People of the Year line-up.
“We have one of the best buildings, I would say, of any airport in the world,” she told The Moodie Davitt Report during our recent visit. “And we want to create a passenger experience matching exactly to that status.” We can speak from personal experience in saying Terminal A delivers precisely that.
Sulaiman Al Siksek
The Abu Dhabi Chief Programs Officer has played a critical and long term role in the realisation of the dream that finally became reality with Abu Dhabi International Airport Terminal A.
“He led the Emirati commercial leadership in the project from start to finish; he is an amazing man and amazing leader; and truly a dedicated professional who works harder than anyone – a truly worthwhile contender,” said an experienced travel retail executive in nominating him for this year’s list.
When The Moodie Davitt Report toured the magnificent new terminal in November, that impression was confirmed. As readers will see in coming days in an interview with Abu Dhabi Airports’ commercial leadership, Al Siksek has a deep-seated belief in and commitment to the project and to his country. In a year that finally saw the birth of this modern-day wonder of the world it is important we acknowledge a man who played such a critical role in its delivery.
Thabet Musleh
Hamad International and Qatar Duty Free are fast becoming the airport and travel retailer that keep on giving in terms of an enhanced airport commercial offer and consumer experience.
This year saw that offer taken to new heights – literally in the case of the giant facades of the luxury boutiques, the duplex offer presented by the likes of Fendi, Louis Vuitton and TimeVallée boutiques, and the superb, recently opened Souq Al Matar.
The last-named is in our view among the most ambitious and authentic realisations of a concept we consider integral but too often sold short in airport retail – Sense of Place. And that’s just the (very high) tip of an ever-swelling iceberg, one that represents a world-leading shopping and food & beverage offer.
In recognition of that fact, Qatar Duty Free this year became the first company to pick up both the industry’s ultimate awards – Airport Food & Beverage Offer of the Year (FAB – The Moodie Davitt Report) and Airport Retailer of the Year (Frontier).
The man driving all this innovation is, of course, Thabet Musleh, surely one of the most effervescent, hardworking, forward-thinking airport commercial executives of our time. His career growth at Qatar Duty Free, duly recognised with his 2023 promotion to his current role, has been notable, his achievements even more so.
Tour Hamad International Airport with Musleh and you’re likely to hear one word more than any other as he does the rounds with his team. “Yallah!” – Arabic for “let's go”, “move it”, or “faster”. Frankly it’s hard to imagine him going any faster. “He’s always on two phones and if he had four hands he would be on four phones,” as one leading brand executive told us recently. Yallah indeed.
Colm McLoughlin
“After 40 years I reflect very positively. I have never regretted coming to Dubai for one minute in all that time.” The words are those of Dubai Duty Free Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Colm McLoughlin, great statesman of travel retail and the driving force behind the rise and rise of Dubai Duty Free, which celebrated its 40thanniversary on 20 December.
His comments above are part of a special commemorative title published by The Moodie Davitt Report to mark the four-decade milestone (click here for access).
Having entered the sector with Shannon Duty Free in his native Ireland in June 1969, McLoughlin moved to Dubai as part of a ten-man consultancy team from Aer Rianta in 1983 to create what would become on 20 December that year Dubai Duty Free.
The rest is history – and very much his story. McLoughlin stayed on to head and drive the company as it grew into the most high profile travel retail on the planet.
It is among our industry’s greatest modern-day stories. From sales of US$44,000 on day one (20 December 1983) to US$20 million in the first full year to well over US$2 billion in 2019 – a figure it will reach again in 2023.
Across the past four decades Dubai Duty Free has become an award-winning mega-brand in its own right and an integral part of the ‘Dubai Inc’ phenomenon that burst memorably onto the world stage from the 1980s onwards.
Dubai Duty Free has achieved all this while maintaining a powerful commitment to consumers and staff and to the wider society and environment in which it operates – it was, notably, the first travel retailer to create a dedicated in-house CSR function.
Across 40 years Dubai Duty Free has been a retail pioneer and powerhouse, a marketing masterclass and a company with deeply ingrained corporate values and ethics. And so very much of its achievement is down to the leadership and values of Colm McLoughlin, whose many years of service to the industry we salute in this, his 80th year.
He is the true inheritor of our industry’s founding father Dr Brendan O’Regan’s mantle as the great travel retail statesman. What a beautiful symmetry there is in that both men began their sector careers at Shannon Airport on the wild west coast of Ireland. A symmetry that this most patriotic of Irishmen is rightly proud of.
Patrick Coveney
Leading travel food services company SSP had laid strong foundations over the past year in its drive to accelerate expansion in numerous high-potential markets, led by North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
The results speak for themselves. In the financial year to 30 September, revenue climbed by +38% year-on-year to £3 billion and EBITDA doubled to £280 million while pre-tax profits leapt by +250% to £88 million.
A clear pivot to higher growth markets of tomorrow was evident in those results – 53% of EBITDA came from North America and Asia Pacific (including the Middle East). That compares to 43% a year ago and 35% in 2019. Around two-thirds of sales from the SSP new business pipeline is planned to come from North America and APAC.
Since those results were announced, expansion in Saudi Arabia (with a new contract at Jeddah Airport complementing another in Riyadh) has followed alongside the acquisition of Calgary-based ECG Ventures Limited.
Since March 2022, when Patrick Coveney became CEO, SSP has built momentum in its business development programme in key territories, established a range of new brand partnerships and built confidence among investors on its direction – with the improved ratio of net debt to EBITDA at year-end an important indicator, among others.
Coveney has added clarity for those investors, supported the internal drive to grow in high-yield markets and encouraged increased investment in innovation from digitalisation to sustainability. And the high-energy Irishman has been a very visible presence in the role too, out in the markets, leading the company’s magnificently exuberant presence at the Airport Food & Beverage + Hospitality Conference and championing the role of F&B in the wider travel community.
More importantly, we think, he has brought a human dimension to a company often viewed – at the top anyway – as a financially slick but somewhat detached institution. Coveney is determined to change that perception and he is doing exactly that.
Rakhita Jayawardena
The 40-year story of how a young General Manager at Sri Lanka Airlines not only took on the inflight retail world but transformed it remains one of the great modern-day duty free tales.
In 1983, Sri Lanka Airlines was in the course of transition from management by Singapore Airlines. One of the first Sri Lankans to take over from a Singaporean executive, Rakhita Jayawardena was charged with developing the then-fledgling business of duty free.
In his own words, he revolutionised a “dormant, non-profit oriented activity into a profit-oriented passenger service” His expertise and passion for the business would subsequently take him all around the world, from South Africa (as a man of colour in the apartheid era) to New York, the UK, Hong Kong, back to Sri Lanka – and most places in between.
This year the ebullient Jayawardena – surely one of our industry’s most charismatic figures – stepped sprightly into his 40th year in the industry, a journey that has evolved remarkably from greenhorn executive to his modern-day status as a founding father of inflight duty free.
But he is so much more besides. He drove one of our sector’s greatest Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, to build the Travel Retail Village in Sri Lanka following the tsunami of 2004. Jayawardena was also the founding President of the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA).
Today he is going stronger than ever as President of King Power Traveler (a partnership with Antares Cheng’s King Power Group Hong Kong) and the Founder of Centaur Travel Retail, his own family company now run by his daughters. As he marks 40 years of immense influence in travel retail, we pay tribute to Rakhita Jayawardena by naming him among our People of the Year.
Cissy Chan
When we called for sector nominations for this year’s People of the Year, Airport Authority Executive Director, Commercial Cissy Chan quickly attracted several ringing endorsements.
“I would like to submit Cissy Chan for this year’s award,” wrote one of the luxury sector’s voices we respect most. “The reopening of Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) from being almost closed was no small accomplishment.
“The level of support, patience and determination that Cissy and her team provided to their tenants was a major reason why HKIA could recover as it did.
“Working within the confines of Hong Kong government regulations for contract modifications while listening to the operators and making adjustments along the way to make it a beneficial recovery for all parties represents a strong testament to Cissy and her team.
“After a discussion requesting HKIA to extend the free base rent period through Q1 and a commitment that we [the brand] would strive to ensure that the turnover rent generated would exceed the modified base rent using the formula, Cissy and I both celebrated the fact that we achieved this goal.
“It is a great example of how tenants and airports can work to remove obstacles and lower risk while providing a positive result for both parties – a result better than could be achieved by a MAG alone even during such a difficult time.”
Those are important words not only in the context of the industry’s recovery from the pandemic but in relation to the whole Trinity debate that has run for the past 21 years. Partnership not just talked but walked.
Sunil Tuli
If we had an award for People’s Champion of 2023 it would be the King Power Group (Hong Kong) CEO.
Yes he is an achiever in his own right with the Hong Kong-based travel retailer and as President of the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA).
But this year’s recognition is for his remarkable fund-raising feat on behalf of cleft charity Smile Train. At The Moodie Davitt Report’s Smile Raising gala dinner in Singapore this May, Tuli not only gave generously but announced during the dinner he planned to fulfil a life-long ambition and climb to the Mount Everest Base Camp to raise US$35,000 for Smile Train.
By dessert that figure had soared to US$45k. By the time he had completed his ascent, Tuli had raised a remarkable US$80,080, monies that will transform the lives of many previously disfigured children in Nepal, the focus of this extraordinary fund-raising feat.
When he visited the B&B Hospital just after his climb, the medical team and patients greeted him with a sign that proclaimed him a ‘Smile Maker’. Indeed he was. One that not only put a smile on the face of many children but on the collective face of an industry.
Dottie
In the hyper-digital age in which we live, it seems only appropriate to announce our first-ever virtual People of the Year winner.
Meet Dottie, China Duty Free Group’s (CDFG) brilliantly innovative way to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit.
In Mandarin there is just one symbol difference between the words for ‘rabbit’ and ‘free’ (as in duty free). A dot.
Hey presto, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of hat, with the adept deployment of a strategically placed dot CDFG created Dottie as an emblem of its world-class shopping offer, one that pledged more products, services and privileges to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
For her (and CDF’s) efforts, Dottie deservedly won a Moodies Social & Digital Media Award this year. What can the Chinese travel retailer come up with for 2024, the Year of the Dragon? Whoever her replacement, Dottie will never be forgotten.
Catherine Bonelli
It’s hard to imagine a more popular, more respected brand executive in our industry than the French travel retail executive, formerly of Lacoste, Paul & Shark, Loch Lomond Group and now French wine house Peuch & Besse.
But she earns her recognition here neither for that popularity nor success but for her dignity and incredible resilience in the fact of the most acutely painful personal turmoil.
We won’t go into that story here – many of our readers know it anyway. And each, to a man and woman, will join us in our salute to Catherine Bonelli’s perseverance and courage and her ability to still light up a room with her smile when it must be so much easier not to.
Toni Martello
We have placed an ever-increasing focus on people at The Moodie Davitt Report and in that regard one of our interviews of the year that really stood out (see page 34) was that with the Founder and Executive Director of Azzurra One Enterprise, the acclaimed Sydney-based travel retail staffing, promotional and marketing services agency, now in its 41st year.
How’s that for staying power?
By definition. Azzurra One is entirely focused on people – travellers and those who serve them. A pretty hard focus to maintain when you have virtually no international travellers as was the case across Australian airports throughout the long (582 days in Sydney’s case) dark period of COVID-driven border closures.
But it takes more than the most severe, sustained crisis in aviation history to keep a good woman down and Toni Martello, the irrepressible Italy-born entrepreneur who had arrived in the land of Oz as an 18 year-old not speaking a word of English is exactly that. Her story is one of unremitting passion, pride and persistence, offering a rare insight into life on the frontline and of what makes that frontline function.
Our readers seemed to agree, the interview generating extraordinary tractions, underlining why Toni Martello deserves her place on our 2023 rollcall of achievement.
Maitreyi Karanth
Comedian, actor, producer, poet, humanitarian, and the tour de force behind Women in Travel Retail’s chosen charity for 2023, the Koma Karanth Foundation.
Meet the remarkable Maitreyi Karanth, a woman with an astonishing life story, that will surely move and inspire you.
Nominated by ARI’s Bahrain-based Projects & Design Manager Tracy Ross as the admirable Women in Travel Retail +’s Charity of the Year for 2023, the Koma Karanth Foundation hoped to raise €15,000 to build and furnish five houses in Gloria, Oriental Mindoro, an impoverished community in the Philippines.
Thanks to her own charisma, the great generosity of our industry and the tremendous work of WiTR+, that target wasn’t just surpassed but smashed, eventually hitting €34,000 and generating crucial long-term visibility.
Maitreyi may not be an executive of the travel retail industry but she has certainly become an honorary citizen of our global community.
Stephane Geffroy and Fumio Owada
Double recognition here in our annual list for two men who played integral roles in the transformation of Kansai International Airport’s (KIX) Terminal 1 airside departures zone.
Kansai Airports Corporate EVP & CCO Non Aeronautical Stephane Geffroy is the man ultimately responsible for driving the commercialisation of this landmark project – a critical element of a broader four-phase, five-year expansion and refurbishment of the entire international and domestic passenger facility that culminates in 2026.
Geffroy and his team decided on an almost revolutionary approach to the commercial offer, notably the decision to introduce an international travel retailer to work with in-house entity Kansai Airports Retail & Services (KRS).
After an open tender that partner turned out to be French company Lagardère Travel Retail, which provided a range of support services to KRS.
The result? Japan’s largest (2,500sq ft) walk-through duty free store, and a radically different, more coherent approach to the traditionally multi-store of much of the nation’s airport retail offer.
The duty free store leads through to a further specialist, destination and luxury retail zone – including a dazzling line-up of Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Chaumet, Gucci, Hermès, Bvlgari, Hermès and Tasaki boutiques. This upscale retail zone is complemented by a diverse food & beverage offer (including the first airport Café Dior by Anne-Sophie Pic) offering a mix of Japanese, other Asian and western cuisine.
We called one of the most impressive transformations of an international airport in recent times and for that achievement, Geffroy is a worthy addition to our 2023 list.
So is Fumio Owada, whose passion for the project shone as brightly as the country’s national emblem, the rising sun, during inauguration day and the media preview 24 hours earlier which we were privileged to participate in.
Owada was rightly praised by Geffroy during the evening’s celebratory event after the opening. He lauded the role of Owada and his team in working with an international partner, their willingness to embrace new thinking and the consumer-orientated shopping emporium – a splendid mix of local and international that had resulted.
Xavier Rossinyol
Dufry (now Avolta) has been the major corporate driver of consolidation and evolution in the travel retail sector for 20 years – and its seismic deal to combine with Autogrill, integrated since February, represents a game-changer for the modern era.
It takes a dynamic that was already reshaping the industry landscape – the convergence of travel retail, food & beverage, essentials and other channels –to a new level and on a vast global scale.
The driving force behind that agreement and the creation of a new ‘travel experience’ company is CEO Xavier Rossinyol.
To pull together two established companies of such size into one entity that straddles multiple business lines takes vision, ambition, persistence and bravery – qualities that Rossinyol has shown through his career and in particular in his latest role leading Avolta.
It also takes clarity of thinking, in this case about what really drives the business. He told us in October as the Avolta name was announced, “I don’t think the right way to organise your business is based on the way you think. You need to organise your business on the way your customer thinks.
“It’s the same people. We need to organise our business in this way. We believe you need to be able to combine the different businesses, you have to have the know-how on duty free, duty paid and F&B. Only then can you really be of service to the consumer.”
It’s a simple but compelling philosophy, articulated by a man whose leadership in creating this new travel retail to dining superforce makes him a deserving choice as one of our People of the Year.
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The Moodie Davitt eZine
Issue 330 | 22 December 2023
The Moodie Davitt eZine is published 14 times per year by The Moodie Davitt Report (Moodie International Ltd). © All material is copyright and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the Publisher. To find out more visit www.moodiedavittreport.com and to subscribe, please e-mail kristyn@moodiedavittreport.com