SWISS Chief Financial Officer Markus Binkert has decided to leave the company after more than 19 years. He will take on new duties as CEO of the SV Group.

Chief Financial Officer Markus Binkert is to leave Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) after more than 19 years. He will take on new duties as CEO of the SV Group, which is active in various areas of the gastronomy and hotel management fields. Binkert will leave SWISS at the end of May. The search for his successor is under way.

“Our company has a lot to thank Markus Binkert for,” says SWISS CEO Dieter Vranckx. “In the numerous key positions that he has held over the years, Markus has consistently contributed to SWISS’s success – in good times and in tougher ones such as the pandemic years. As a vital member of our Management Board, Markus has been instrumental in helping to ensure that our airline stands on the firm financial foundation that it has today, debt-free and well positioned to meet and master the challenges ahead.”

“Markus has Swissness in his blood, and has ensured time and again that SWISS embodies and reflects Swiss values,” CEO Vranckx continues. “During his time as our Chief Commercial Officer in particular, he dedicated himself to our brands and our product development, putting Swiss quality firmly centre stage and, in doing so, making a huge contribution to our commercial success. I offer Markus my sincere thanks for his exceptional commitment to our company and for his outstanding team spirit; and I wish him all the very best and every further success.”

A tangible impact on the SWISS look

After serving in the strategic consultancy sector, Markus Binkert joined SWISS as Head of Global Key Accounts & Business Sales Switzerland in 2005. He went on to hold further positions in Product, Marketing and Distribution before being appointed to the SWISS Management Board as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) in 2013. In his CCO capacity Binkert had a strong and lasting impact on the entire SWISS look: his signature can still be seen today in the company’s aircraft interiors, its airport lounges and its inflight culinary offerings.

In 2016 Markus Binkert took on additional overall responsibility for Pricing, Revenue Management and Distribution for the entire Lufthansa Group. And from 2019 to 2020 he served with Lufthansa Airline as Chief Commercial Officer for Hub Munich with simultaneous Lufthansa Group-wide responsibility for Marketing, a capacity in which he continued to act as a vital link between SWISS and the Lufthansa Group.

He returned to SWISS to become Chief Financial Officer and rejoin the Management Board in March 2020. In this position he is in overall charge not only of the company’s finances but also of human resources, legal affairs, IT and the Swiss WorldCargo division. In the course of his CFO tenure Markus Binkert was also responsible for negotiating, concluding and utilizing the bridging loan backed by the Swiss Confederation during the COVID-19 pandemic.