Advertising executive Todd Sampson to join Qantas board

A recent shot of Qantas Boeing 747-400 VH-OJA at Los Angeles Airport. (Rob Finlayson) — Qantas has added a new board member. (Rob Finlayson)

Qantas has appointed television personality and advertising executive Todd Sampson to the board.

Sampson takes up his seat as a non-executive director on February 25 2015, Qantas said in a statement on Friday.

“Todd will bring a wealth of marketing experience to the Qantas Board, as well as broader business acumen from the senior leadership and strategy roles he has held,” Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford said.

Sampson, who is a regular panelist on ABC TV’s Gruen program and chief executive of advertising agency Leo Burnett, said it was an honour to join the board of “one of the most iconic brands in the world”.

The Canadian-born, Australian citizen is currently a director of Fairfax Media, having joined the publisher’s board in May 2014.

Comments (7)

Peter

January 9, 2015 at 11:48 am

Good move. Now – any chance they’ll look for someone who knows how to run an airline?

Janelle

January 9, 2015 at 3:33 pm

Looking forward to some great Advertising/Marketing – Lucky you Qantas!

Ray Mason

January 12, 2015 at 5:41 pm

This is a great move. Todd thinks outside the box and despite all the criticism, Qantas remains the world’s safest airline.Todd will be able to use that great asset to maximum effect.

Dr Peter

January 12, 2015 at 6:04 pm

Do Qantas have any experienced pilots on the board?

John Paul

January 12, 2015 at 11:03 pm

Any chance he can persuade Management to re-instate Singapore -London flights. Not all of us want to fly to Dubai. Can’t stand the place ! Emirates are stealing Qantas Business and laughing all the way to the Bank!

Patrick Sandford

January 13, 2015 at 12:09 am

As a fellow Canadian, I can only say that Canadians stuffed Air Canada and its reputation went down the plug hole, is this a case of dejavu? Having said that I hope that he can turn things around save the flying rat!