Amadeus to appoint William Connelly as Chairman of the Board of Directors; Jose Antonio Tazon to retire

April 29, 2021

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Alba Redondo

Corporate Communications

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Connelly, who has been on Amadeus’ Board since the summer of 2019, will succeed the retiring José Antonio Tazón after the company AGM in June. Tazón, one of the company’s original co-founders, has served on Amadeus’ Board of Directors since December 2008 and previously was Amadeus President and CEO for 18 years. This change is part of a broader natural Board renewal and succession plan which commenced back in 2017 and has seen the appointment o

Connelly, who has been on Amadeus’ Board since the summer of 2019, will succeed the retiring José Antonio Tazón after the company AGM in June.
Tazón, one of the company’s original co-founders, has served on Amadeus’ Board of Directors since December 2008 and previously was Amadeus President and CEO for 18 years.
This change is part of a broader natural Board renewal and succession plan which commenced back in 2017 and has seen the appointment of a number of new independent Directors at Amadeus over the past four years.

Amadeus today announces that William Connelly, currently Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Amadeus, is set to be appointed Chairman, commencing his role after the General Assembly of Shareholders in June of this year.

Connelly, who has served as an independent Board Director since June 2019 and as Vice Chairman since April 2020, will take over from the retiring José Antonio Tazón, one of the original co-founders of Amadeus, who acted as President and CEO for nearly two decades until 2008. Tazón’s near 35-year tenure at Amadeus has seen consistent growth, global expansion, and the creation and continued development of Amadeus’ successful diversification strategy. Tazón has served on Amadeus’ Board since the end of 2008.

This move marks the natural continuation of a wider and progressive Board renewal and succession plan which was agreed by the Nominations and Remuneration Committee at Amadeus and which began four years ago. To this end back in 2017 Nicolas Huss and Pilar García were appointed to the Board, followed by the appointment of Stephan Gemkow and Peter Kuerpick in 2018. In 2019 Josep Piqué and William Connelly were appointed, as was Xioaqun Clever in 2020, all serving as independent Directors.

In addition to William Connelly assuming the role of Chairman of the Board after the General Assembly of Shareholders in June, two new independent Directors, Jana Eggers and Amanda Mesler, will also join the Board subject to the approval of the Assembly. They will replace José Antonio Tazón and Pierre-Henri Gourgeon (other external Director), whose term of office expires also in June 2021.

The new appointments will reinforce the percentage of independent Board members (11 out of 13, meaning 84.6%) as well as increasing the Board’s gender diversity (5 out of 13, meaning 38.5%).

Luis Maroto, President and CEO at Amadeus said, “Firstly I would like to express my sincerest gratitude and thanks to José Antonio Tazón, for his distinguished, long standing and exemplary service to this company over many decades. His commitment, loyalty, and his relentless drive and energy to consistently push the boundaries and to keep this company moving forward, not least with our diversification strategy and by entering new markets, will never be forgotten.”

Maroto continued: “In turn we warmly welcome William Connelly as the new Chairman of the Board. We are in extremely good hands as we progress into the second half of 2021 and beyond. As we implement our Board succession and renewal plan which has been in place since 2017, I know William will bring his own creativity, enthusiasm and many past experiences to bear in this new role. Finally, I wish to express my appreciation to Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, a Board Member at Amadeus during many years, for all his support to the Board and the Company”.

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