TUI CEO Joussen resigns from holiday provider

The boss of travel operator TUI Friedrich Joussen has resigned from his post to be replaced at the helm by Sebastian Ebel the company’s CFO.

Joussen said that when the coronavirus pandemic hit in spring 2020 it turned TUI into  a company without a business “virtually overnight”, and that the attention had been foremost on rescuing the operator and “crisis management”.

He added that task had now been completed, so he had made the decision to resign from the group,  and he felt comfortable doing do now that TUI had a high level of liquidity and was no longer using state credit lines and that the company is expecting a strong summer of travel “almost at the level of 2019.

“Now that the existential crisis has been mastered, the time is right for a change at the top of TUI,” Joussen said.

He will step down as CEO on 30 September this year.

Dieter Zetsche, chairman of of TUI, said: “Sebastian Ebel is to become TUI’s new CEO. He is an excellent choice for the new start after the corona crisis. As a member of the executive board, he has been responsible for the strategic growth areas of hotels, cruises and activities for many years and developed them into the group’s most profitable segments.

“I have worked closely with him over the past years and greatly appreciate his expertise and reliability. I am convinced that he will lead TUI to new successes.”

He added that the board regretted Joussen’s decision to stand down and that he also “personally” regretted it, and that the CEO had had taken over a travel group that was “threatened with being split up” but had , “successfully restructured” it and given TUI its current “future-proof shape”.

Taking Ebel’s place as CFO will be Mathias Kiep who currently holds the position of group director for controlling at the business.