Air India CEO designate Wilson's security clearance only after background check: Centre
Premium- As the security clearance is taking time, Campbell Wilson is yet to formally take over the charge of the Air India
Centre in examining the application for Air India Chief Executive Officer designate Campbell Wilson's security. It will approve the same after the thorough background check is completed.
The application for security clearance to Air India CEO designate Campbell Wilson is under consideration and the approval will be given once the background check is completed, officials privy to the issue said.
Under government rules, clearance of the home ministry is mandatory for appointment of key personnel at private-run companies that include foreign nationals.
After the of Air India, Tata Sons announced the appointment of Wilson in May this year. “However, as the security clearance is taking time, Wilson is yet to formally take over the charge of the Air India," industry sources said. The airline has not commented on the issue.
In a message to Air India employees on June 20, Wilson said the airline's "best years are yet to come" and that the journey to make it a world class airline will require efforts that are "big and small, easy and difficult".
Wilson, an aviation industry veteran with over 26 years of experience, started off as a management trainee with Singapore Airlines in New Zealand in 1996.
He then worked for the carrier in Canada, Hong Kong and Japan before returning to Singapore in 2011 as the founding CEO of Scoot, which he led until 2016.
He then served as the senior vice president sales and marketing of Singapore Airlines, where he oversaw pricing, distribution, e-commerce, merchandising, brand and marketing, global sales and the airline's overseas offices, before returning for a second stint as the CEO of Scoot in April 2020.
Weeks after taking over the carrier, Tata Sons, on February 14, named Turkish Airlines' former Chairman Lyker Ayci as Air India's MD and CEO.
However, Ayci, a Turkish national, who was to take over on April 1, declined to join the group amid concerns in certain quarters over his reported close links with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Erdoğan had taken anti-India stand on several occasions in the past on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Air India was started by the Tata Group in 1932 and the carrier was nationalised in 1953.
(With inputs from agencies)
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