Bertolt Martin Flick (born 1964,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

businessman, the former president and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

airBaltic airBaltic, legally incorporated as AS Air Baltic Corporation, is the flag carrier of Latvia. Its head office are located on the grounds of Riga International Airport in Mārupe municipality near Riga. Its main airline hub, hub is Riga, and it o ...

airline. He has a law degree from the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

, Germany. In 1995, Flick became a member of

's supervisory board and in 1999 he was elected the chairman of the board. Between 2002 and 2011, he was the president and CEO of the company. On January 30, 2009, Flick purchased a 47.2% stake in

from

Scandinavian Airlines The Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is part of SAS Group and is headquartered in Solna, Sweden. Including its subsidiaries SAS Link and ...

via Baltijas aviācijas sistēmas Ltd (BAS) for 14 million lats. BAS was wholly owned by Flick until December 2010, when 50% of BAS shares were transferred to Taurus Asset Management Fund Limited, registered in the Bahamas. The beneficiaries of the company were widely disputed. Under the leadership of Flick, airBaltic lost 173 million euros between 2010 and 2011. In August 2011, airBaltic requested more than 60 million lats in capital as its losses continued to mount, and suffered speculation about its financial position and political scandals throughout 2011. In mid-September 2011, the company announced plans to lay off around half its employees and cancel around 700 flights a month to avoid possible grounding. The government of Latvia and BAS agreed to invest around 100 million lats in the airline's share capital in proportion to their stakes in AirBaltic.Latvian government approves airBaltic deal
In connection with the agreement, Flick stepped down as long-term president and CEO of the airline. He became the president of the Frankfurt-am-Main based charter airline XL Airways in 2012.

References

1964 births Living people Businesspeople from Frankfurt German airline chief executives {{Germany-business-bio-stub