Norwegian Air Names Ex-Gas Station Executive as CEO

(Bloomberg) -- Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA named Jacob Schram as its new chief executive officer, hiring a retail veteran to lead the low-cost airline as it emerges from a debt crisis triggered by years of unrestrained growth.

Schram, 57, has worked for decades as an executive at fast-food, convenience-store and gas-station chains. He will take over on Jan. 1, Norwegian Air said Wednesday. Geir Karlsen, who focused on stabilizing the company’s finances as interim CEO since July, will remain as chief financial officer and deputy CEO.

Schram left Canadian retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. last year after leading the European unit of its Circle K brand. Since then, he’s focused on private investments and start-ups, while acting as an adviser to management consultant McKinsey & Co.

At Norwegian Air he takes charge of a carrier whose viability is openly questioned by rivals. Under long-time chief and co-founder Bjorn Kjos, the comany spurned two takeover bids from British Airways parent IAG SA as a cash crunch left it vulnerable after one of fastest expansions in European airline history.

Chairman Niels Smedegaard said that while airline experience might be “nice to have,” Norwegian will benefit from the new CEO’s “strong commercial consumer orientation and impressive track record of value creation” as it enters a new phase.

Schram, who previously led the gas-station unit of Statoil, now Equinor ASA, described himself as an expert in transformation at a press conference in Oslo, saying a career in retail has also given him an “extreme” customer focus.

“The fuel industry isn’t the airline industry, but it’s also a tough one,” he said. “There have been many fights, many restructurings. I’ve bought companies and sold companies, I’ve conducted mergers.”

Recruiting a CEO from outside is relatively unusual among top European airlines. IAG chief Willie Walsh and Deutsche Lufthansa counterpart Carsten Spohr are both qualified pilots, while EasyJet Plc head Johan Lundgren has worked in the travel trade since 1986.

Schram guided the Statoil retail arm through a listing on the Norwegian stock exchange in 2010. When the company was bought by Couche-Tard he worked as the convenience store giant’s European president, and led a global rebranding of more than 10,000 outlets to Circle K.

McDonald’s Role

Earlier in his career the Norwegian was employed in marketing at McDonald’s Corp. More recently, he wrote “The Essence of Business” and has made presentations on the book and the topic of future mobility, though he said the latter were focused more on the automotive sector than aviation.

During Karlsen’s brief time in charge, the acting CEO oversaw measures to improve liquidity and earnings, including selling aircraft, amending bond terms, securing a long-awaited plane-leasing venture, and raising new equity for the second time this year.

Schram, who said the airline had made the first approach, declined to comment on industry consolidation, adding that it’s too early to say whether Norwegian Air might one day be sold, or what new strategic initiatives are likely.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mikael Holter in Oslo at mholter2@bloomberg.net;Christopher Jasper in London at cjasper@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net, Christopher Jasper, Anthony Palazzo

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