Gol CEO Kakinoff to step down, Ferrer to take helm

Longtime Gol CE Paolo Kakinoff will step down from his post in July, with current COO Celso Ferrer to succeed him as CEO. The Sao Paulo-based carrier says on 16 May that Kakinoff, who became CEO in 2012, will remain with the company as a board member. The management shift comes days after Gol disclosed plans to join Colombia’s Avianca under a holding company called Abra Group, which will be headed by Gol chairman Constantino de Oliveira Junior. He founded Gol in 2001 and was CEO until Kakinoff took over in 2012. “Celso and I have worked side by side for more than seven years. He is an experienced and well-prepared executive, one of the most competent I have known in all my professional career,” Kakinoff says. Ferrer joined Gol in 2003 and has served in numerous roles, including chief planning officer and chief operating officer. He is also a Boeing 737 pilot and holds degrees from the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Pontifícia Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo and French business school INSEAD.<br/>