Airport ground services and air cargo handler Swissport International AG has appointed Janina Kugel and Julian Diaz Gonzalez to its board of directors.

Janina Kugel is the former managing board member and chief human resources officer of Siemens AG, and Julian Diaz Gonzalez is the former long-serving chief executive of Dufry (now Avolta).

Kugel is a highly experienced German executive known for her influential career in human resources, which she began at Siemens AG in 2001.

As chief human resources officer from 2015 to 2020, she led the company’s cultural transformation with a focus on diversity, digitalisation and the future of work.

Following her time at Siemens, Kugel served on several boards, including as a non-executive director at TUI AG, and has also taken on a senior advisor role at Boston Consulting Group.

During his tenure from 2004 to 2022, Diaz Gonzalez led Dufry through significant growth and numerous acquisitions, transforming the Swiss-listed (SIX) company into the world’s number one travel retailer.

Diaz Gonzalez spent almost his entire career in the travel-retail industry and has held leadership positions at Latinoamericana Duty-Free and Aeroboutiques/Deor.

David Siegel, chairman of the board of Swissport International AG, said: “With their wealth of expertise, Janina Kugel and Julian Diaz Gonzalez are a perfect fit to support Swissport’s next phase of strategic growth and development, and to further strengthen its position as a global market leader.”

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