Virgin appoints SA country manager

VIRGIN Atlantic has
appointed Liezl Gericke
as its country manager for
South Africa. She takes over
from Simon Newton-Smith,
who assumed the role of vp
of sales and distribution in
North America. Liezl, who
takes up her position this
month, served as the head
of sales and marketing
for South Africa for the
past three years, having
worked for the airline since
2012. She was previously
the gm for STA Travel in
South Africa. Commenting
on her new position, Liezl
said: “Southern Africa is
a strategically important
region for Virgin Atlantic
and this is an exciting time
for us. I am really looking
forward to taking up this
new and challenging role.”
Liezl is now be responsible
for Virgin Atlantic’s Southern
African operation which
includes the Virgin Atlantic
daily services between
Johannesburg, London
Heathrow and beyond
to North America. She
revealed the airline will
invest £300m (R5bn) in
customer experience and
will welcome the new Boeing
787-900 aircraft onto the
Johannesburg route later
this year.