Three top positions filled as oneworld moves to New York

26 May 2011

Three senior appointments have been announced by oneworld® ahead of next month's move of the leading global airline alliance's head office from Vancouver to New York.

Reporting directly to oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby, they are:

•  Stephen Usery, who has joined as oneworld's Vice-President Commercial, leading the alliances sales and marketing activities, including its frequent flyer offering, consumer fare products, advertising, e-commerce, brand, sales and market development. He succeeds Nicolas Ferri, who left oneworld late last year to take up an appointment outside the alliance.

•  Dennis Tierney, who has been appointed Vice-President Membership and Customer Experience, with responsibility for relations with oneworld's existing member airlines and soliciting and inducting new member airlines, developing the oneworld network and ensuring it maintains its leadership in its customer offering, including  airport  co-location.   His  new  position combines those of Vice-President Membership and Operations Kathy Mullen and Vice-President Customer Experience and Airports Robert Antoniuk, who have opted to leave oneworld and stay in Vancouver rather than relocate to New York.

•  Anita Beier, who has been named Director Finance and Administration and CFO, a new position covering responsibilities previously spread across a number of departments in the alliance central team, bringing together all financial and administrative functions as well as co-ordinating the sharing of best practices across the oneworld member airlines.

oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby said: "Stephen, Dennis and Anita each bring their considerable relevant experience and great track records to their new roles.  Their collective experience covers the entire span of alliance activities and will provide a strong foundation for our team as we embark on the next exciting phase of oneworld's development, building on the solid progress of the past decade in establishing oneworld firmly as the world's premier airline alliance."

The move of oneworld's head office to New York, announced in December, will enable its central alliance team to keep its finger right on the pulse of the world's single biggest air travel market, with New York's airports used by 110 million passengers a year.  The city is served by more flights by more oneworld member airlines than any other destination worldwide, with 10 of the alliance's 14 existing and designate members flying to at least one of its airports. 

The new oneworld headquarters will be at 2 Park Avenue, Manhattan.  The alliance team will share the 46,200 sq ft premises with the New York offices of most oneworld member airlines and the unit managing the new transatlantic joint business launched in October between oneworld partners American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia.  Bringing these various functions together will maximise synergies between these key elements of the alliance, particularly in developing more new services and benefits for customers.

The British Airways and joint business teams moved into the building at the beginning of this month.  The central oneworld alliance team will follow on a phased basis from next month, with the other airlines will moving in later this year. 

About Stephen Usery, oneworld's new Vice-President Commercial

Stephen Usery has joined oneworld from Twin Cities Public Television in Minneapolis-St Paul, where he has served as Chief Fundraising and Marketing Officer since 2009, after six years as Vice-President Marketing and Strategy.

He moved there from US Airways, where he had been Vice-President Marketing and Revenue Management for three years, with responsibility for pricing and revenue management, advertising, direct marketing, frequent flyer programmes, strategic marketing partnerships, product development and market research.  Before joining US Airways, he spent eight years in various alliance, marketing and revenue management roles at Northwest Airlines, including serving as Managing Director Alliances, Director Product Development and Director Yield Management.

He joined Northwest from SunTrust Bank where he spent six years on various Marketing assignments.  He began his career as an auditor and small business consultant with consultancy Touche Ross.

Aged 51 with American citizenship, he holds a BA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and an MBA from Vanderbilt University.

About Dennis Tierney, oneworld's new Vice-President Membership and Customer Experience

Dennis Tierney has moved to oneworld from US Airways where he worked for the past 17 years, most recently as Managing Director Alliances, with responsibility for all alliance activities, including overseeing the airline's entry into the Star alliance and its bilateral negotiations and all alliance initiatives with the other Star partners, as well as bilateral and interline relationships with other airlines.  He has also served as the airline's Director International Sales, with responsibility for all its European activities.

He previously worked for 17 years with Northwest Airlines in various alliance, sales and international management positions, including serving as its Manager Strategic Relations and Manager Regional Airline Programs. He also spent six years based in Asia, including two in Japan as Regional Manager, and three in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore as Manager South East Asia.

An American citizen, aged 56, he is a graduate of Miami University.

About Anita Beier, oneworld's new Director Finance and Administration

Before joining oneworld, Anita Beier was Senior Vice-President and Controller for satellite communications company Intelsat for four years.

Between 1999 and 2006, she was Senior Vice-President and Controller at US Airways, handling two Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings and playing a key role in its successful restructuring and merger with America West.  Earlier she served as Chief Financial Officer with American Commercial Barge Lines and as Vice-President Financial Planning and Analysis at CSX Transportation, a railroad transportation and logistics company.

An American citizen, aged 55, she holds a BS in Business Administration and an MBA from the University of Maryland.

About oneworld

oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  airberlin and India's Kingfisher Airlines are both members elect.  Between them, these airlines:

  • Serve almost 900 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 9,500 daily departures.
  • Offer more than 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
  • Carry 340 million passengers a year.
  • Operate a combined fleet of almost 2,500 aircraft.
  • Generate around US$90 billion annual revenues in total.

oneworld enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own.  These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges.   oneworld also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors. 

oneworld is current holder of three of the four leading international awards for airline alliances - named the Best Airline Alliance by Global Traveler in its GT Tested Reader Survey 2010 Awards, World's Best Alliance in the 2010 World Airline Awards and the World's Leading Airline Alliance in the 2010 World Travel Awards, retaining that title for the eighth year running.