The Board of Directors of Skyguide has appointed Olivier Perrin as the new Chief Safety & Security Officer (CSO) and member of Skyguide's Executive Board. In this function, Olivier Perrin succeeds Klaus Affholderbach, who leaves the company after more than 20 years to pursue a new professional challenge.

Olivier Perrin will be Skyguide's new Chief Safety & Security Officer as of 1 July 2023. He joined Skyguide in 2000 as a satellite navigation systems engineer. In 2010, he was promoted to Head of military and regional aerodromes and took on additional responsibility for all military operations and lower airspace operations in 2014. Since 2018, he has headed up Skyguide's ATM Virtual Centre division. The 48 year-old manager is an active private pilot and serves as a Colonel in the Swiss Air Force, since 2017 as Commander of the Air Traffic Control staff. Olivier holds a master's degree in geomatics engineering from EPFL, and an MBA from Concordia University in Canada. He is married and a father of 3 young adults. "We are in a profound, technology-driven transformation process and I look very much forward to shaping this process as part of the Executive Board while ensuring that the company continues to live up to the highest safety and security standards", says Olivier Perrin.

Olivier Perrin will replace Klaus Affholderbach, who has served as the company's Chief Safety Officer and member of the Executive Board since 2018. Klaus Affholderbach has held various functions at Skyguide since joining the company in 2001, including Head of Air Traffic Management Geneva, Head of International Airports (Zurich and Geneva) and Head of ATM Virtual Centre before Olivier Perrin. After 22 years with Skyguide, Klaus Affholderbach has decided to take a next career step as partner of an international consulting firm and professional keynote speaker.

"Skyguide has an exemplary and deeply embedded safety culture. This is the result of many years of work under Klaus' leadership. He has always impressed us with the depth and breadth of his knowledge and with his considered management style. On behalf of the Board of Directors, the Executive Team and the entire workforce, I thank him most sincerely for his tireless efforts and wish him all the best", says Alex Bristol, CEO of Skyguide. "I also warmly welcome Olivier Perrin as a new member of the Executive Board, and I am convinced that Olivier is the right person to maintain our high safety standards by constantly investing in our safety culture. He is also the right person to help lead the company through the next phases of its transformation and I look very much forward to having him in our Executive Team."

The search for Olivier Perrin's successor in his current role has now been initiated.Â