São Paulo – Claudia Sender, previously vice-president of the Brazil Domestic Business Unit of TAM Airlines, has become the company’s CEO. According to Marco Antonio Bologna, the CEO of the holding company, TAM S.A., who had accumulated the position since February last year, the two functions are once again separated so that the incoming executive can fully dedicate her time to the airline’s passenger operations in Brazil. Meanwhile Bologna will focus on consolidating the merger with LAN, the institutional relations of the company and of the LATAM Airlines Group in Brazil, and on representing the Brazilian management at the LATAM Airlines Group.

“The current business climate in Brazil poses enormous challenges as well as considerable opportunities for airlines. The current incentives for our industry and issues such as the incentives for regional aviation, the expansion in airport capacity, the dynamics of competition, and the major events that Brazil will host this year and in the coming years, demand a strong focus on the company’s day-to-day operations, which will be now be Claudia’s responsibility,” said Bologna.

Senders joined TAM Airlines on 15 December 2011. She has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Polytechnic School at the University of São Paulo (USP), received an MBA from Harvard Business School, and has spent most of her career in the consumer goods industry in the marketing and strategic planning areas.

“Claudia’s impressive results in creating value and focusing on consumers at the companies where she has worked, and more importantly the results she has achieved in managing TAM’s business in the Brazilian market, plus her capacity to train and lead teams, fully qualifies her to head up the task of serving millions of customers and further ensuring access to air travel for consumers in the world’s third largest domestic market,” added Bologna, to whom the new CEO will continue to report.

The separation of the two CEO functions first occurred at TAM in May 2010, when Bologna became CEO of the holding company TAM S.A., the parent company of TAM Airlines, TAM Airlines in Paraguay and Multiplus. The CEO of TAM S.A. is responsible for the following areas: Finance and Controllership, Internal Audit, Legal and Compliance, Institutional and Government Relations and Operational Safety. Bologna will also supervise the Centre for Service Excellence and the international operations under the structure of the LATAM Airlines Group jointly with the CEO of LAN.

Background of Claudia Sender
Claudia Sender, 38, joined TAM Airlines as the Commercial and Marketing Vice-President and, after the merger with LAN, became head of the Brazil Domestic Business Unit, with her responsibilities expended to include the entire customer service structure. Prior to joining TAM, Sender was Marketing Vice-President at Whirlpool Latin America, where she worked for seven years, and a consultant at Bain Company, where she worked on projects for large companies in various industries, including TAM and other carriers in the global airline industry.