Swissport International AG, a global leader in airport ground services and air cargo handling, has appointed two new members to its board of directors. Janina Kugel, former managing board member and chief human resources officer of Siemens AG, and Julian Diaz Gonzalez, former long-serving CEO of Dufry (now Avolta), have assumed their roles as non-executive directors on the board from July 2024.
Kugel is an experienced German executive known for her influential career in human resources, which she began at Siemens AG in 2001. As chief human resources officer from 2015 to 2020, she led the company’s cultural transformation with a focus on diversity, digitalization, and the future of work. Following her time at Siemens, Kugel has served on several boards, including as a non-executive director at TUI AG and has also taken on a senior advisor role at Boston Consulting Group.
Diaz Gonzalez is the former CEO of the travel retail group Dufry AG. During his tenure from 2004 to 2022, he led Dufry through significant growth and numerous acquisitions, transforming the Swiss-listed company into the world’s number one travel retailer. Diaz Gonzalez spent almost his entire career in the travel-retail industry and has held leadership positions at Latinoamericana Duty-Free and Aeroboutiques/Deor.
“We are delighted that Swissport has been able to recruit two such exceptional individuals for a position on the Board of Directors,” says David Siegel, chairman of the board of Swissport International AG. “With their wealth of expertise, Janina Kugel and Julian Diaz Gonzalez are a perfect fit to support Swissport’s next phase of strategic growth and development and to further strengthen its position as a global market leader.”
The Swissport Board sets the strategic priorities of the Swissport Group and continuously reviews and develops the corporate governance framework, policies, and procedures to support business activities while ensuring compliance with corporate governance recommendations and statutory requirements.
