Qantas starts cost cutting with group management committee reduction

No head of people and culture replacement as Qantas cuts group management committee.

Lesley Grant has spent 17 years with the Qantas Group in a variety of roles. Picture: Sam Mooy

Qantas is reducing the size of its group management committee with the decision not to replace head of people and culture Lesley Grant when she retires at the end of the year.

In a note to staff, CEO Alan Joyce said Ms Grant had spent 17 years with the Qantas Group in a variety of roles, including head of customer and marketing, and loyalty CEO. 

“She led the introduction of automated domestic check-in, the A380 customer experience and first class lounges and the creation of the centre of service excellence,” wrote Mr Joyce. 

“During the turnaround in 2013, Lesley was an integral member of the executive committee.” 

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In her current role, Ms Grant had “created a framework for improving the services we deliver to our people and continued to be a big supporter of diversity and inclusion”.

“As a result of Lesley’s retirement, we’re taking the opportunity to streamline the group management committee (GMC),” Mr Joyce said.

“This means the functions currently under the group executive of people and culture will move to sit with existing corporate services, reducing the size of the GMC by one.”

The move follows last week’s first-quarter trading update, at which Mr Joyce flagged a “strong focus on cost reduction” given the slower revenue environment”.

“Part of this is about taking opportunities to reduce complexity and constantly improving how efficiently we manage our business,” Mr Joyce said last Thursday.

A Qantas spokesman said it was too early to say how the change would affect other roles at the airline.

It was expected Ms Grant’s responsibilities would be split between office of the CEO group executive Andrew Finch, and strategy, innovation and technology executive Rob Marcolina.

Her departure will leave three women on the group management committee and eight men.