Lufthansa reassigns finance tasks amid sudden CFO departure

The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is putting a strain on executive succession plans, with some companies resorting to unusual arrangements to fill key vacancies. A case in point: Lufthansa. The airline group on Wednesday reassigned various finance tasks to its CE, board members and senior managers following the sudden departure of CFO Ulrik Svensson on Monday. Svensson, who left Lufthansa citing health reasons, had been at the helm since January 2017. He announced his intention to step down on Saturday and left two days later. Companies typically seek to fill such vacancies quickly. But Lufthansa thought it would be better to wait. “This is not the right moment to appoint a new chief financial officer,” Lufthansa Chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley said Wednesday. Kley said the new structure relying on existing executives and directors would set a course to overcome the deep crisis which has resulted in the company shuttering its low-cost Germanwings airline, decommissioning aircraft and forecasting weak demand for air travel for years.<br/>