Carsten Spohr (born 16 December 1966) is a German airline executive. Since May 2014 he has been the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding ...

Education

After graduating with a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Karlsruhe (now part of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Spohr obtained a commercial pilot's license at Lufthansa Flight Training in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie H ...

and the Airline Training Center Arizona. Spohr continues to maintain this license until the present day. His license allows him to fly the Airbus A320.

Career

After gaining his commercial pilot's license, Spohr enjoyed a brief role at Deutsche Aerospace AG after enrolling in the company's management training programme. Following this, Spohr joined Lufthansa in 1994. Between 1995 and 1998, he served as the personal assistant to the CEO of the company. After this role, he moved on to head various regional partnerships at Lufthansa, for example in 1998, he became head of regional partner management. He was then soon appointed to lead the group's passenger airline strategy. In 2007, he was made CEO of

Lufthansa Cargo Lufthansa Cargo AG is a German cargo airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa. It operates worldwide air freight and logistics services and is headquartered at Frankfurt Airport, the main hub of Lufthansa. Besides operating dedicat ...

. In 2011, in recognition of his loyalty to the company, he was invited to join the executive board. On 1 May 2014 Spohr took over from Christoph Franz as Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. During his time as CEO there have been poor industrial relations, with a number of strike actions, due to the push to expand Lufthansa's low-cost airline Germanwings. In 2020, Spohr was temporarily assigned the portfolio for digitisation and finance. According to his profile on '' Bloomberg'', his annual compensation amounts to around €2.7 million. Spohr described the Germanwings Flight 9525 disaster as "the darkest day for Lufthansa in its 60-year history". In May 2014, Spohr was one of a number of business executives invited to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...

by U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

in a meeting aimed at extending job opportunities from international companies to the U.S. During the

Hannover Messe The Hannover Messe (HM; "Hanover Fair") is one of the world's largest trade fairs, dedicated to the topic of industry development. It is organized by Deutsche Messe AG and held on the Hanover Fairground in Hanover, Germany. Typically, there ...

in April 2016, he was among the 15 German CEOs who were invited to a private dinner with Obama. Since 2013, Spohr has accompanied Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Op ...

on a total of three state visits abroad, including to China (2014) and Abu Dhabi (2017).

Other activities

Corporate boards

* Lufthansa Technik, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (since 2014) * ThyssenKrupp, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2013) *

Oetker Group Dr. Oetker () is a German multinational company that produces baking powder, cake mixes, frozen pizza, pudding, cake decoration, cornflakes, party candles, and various other products. The company is a wholly owned branch of the Oetker Group, ...

, Member of the Advisory Board (2014-2018)

Non-profits

* Baden-Badener Unternehmer-Gespräche (BBUG), Member of the Board * European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), Member of the Board of Trustees * Federation of German Industries (BDI), Member of the Presidium (2017-2019) * Rheingau Musik Festival, Member of the Board of TrusteesBoard of Trustees
Rheingau Musik Festival.

Personal life

Spohr is married and has two daughters. He and his family currently live in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. Spohr's wife Vivian is head of Lufthansa's Help Alliance which runs aid projects in numerous countries abroad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spohr, Carsten 1966 births Living people People from Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia German airline chief executives Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni Lufthansa people