Christine Jeanne Ourmières-Widener (born 21 September 1964) is a French businesswoman and currently the

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

TAP Air Portugal TAP Air Portugal is the currently state-owned flag carrier airline of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its hub. TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and oper ...

Early life

Ourmières-Widener was born in Avignon,

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pref ...

. She studied for a degree from the

École nationale supérieure de mécanique et d'aérotechnique The École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d'Aérotechnique (ISAE-ENSMA) is a grande école founded in 1948 and located near Poitiers, France. Graduates generally work as R&D engineers for corporations in the aerospace (60%), transportat ...

where she received a degree in

aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

. She gained a business qualification (master of marketing) from

ESSEC Business School The École Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (more commonly ESSEC Business School or ESSEC) is a major French business and management school, with non-profit association status (French association law of 1901) founded in 190 ...

Career

She worked at

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...

from 1988, where she started in the maintenance team for the

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

. Her responsibilities grew into a commercial role where she eventually headed the Air France KLM team for North America based in New York. Subsequently appointed UK and Ireland Managing Director for Air France, she was then named Chief Executive of the Irish airline

CityJet CityJet is an Irish regional airline with headquarters in Swords, Dublin. It was founded in 1992 and has gone through a series of corporate structures. Air France sold CityJet to ''Intro Aviation'' in May 2014; in March 2016 the airline was b ...

, after it was bought by Air France, from 1 October 2010 to 2015. She was for some time part of the

European Regions Airline Association The European Regions Airline Association is a trade association of European regional airlines and associated businesses. It was founded as the European Regional Airlines Association in 1980, by a small number of what were then known as ''commuter ...

. On 20 December 2016, it was announced that she was joining Flybe. She became Chief Executive of Flybe on 16 January 2017. During their annual meeting in 2018, it was announced by the IATA that she had been elected to the board of directors of the organisation. She was the first woman elected to the board of 31 members. She had been appointed interim director on 24 April 2017, when Fernando Pinto stepped down. tourmag.com: "Christine Ourmières-Widener rejoint le Comité de Direction de IATA"
6 Jun 2018 On 29 May 2019, she resigned as CEO of Flybe, with her departure taking effect on 15 July of the same year. The move came following recurring financial problems in the company, which was subsequently taken over by Connect Airways, a consortium of

Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and ...

Stobart Air Stobart Air, legally incorporated as ''Stobart Air Unlimited Company'', was an Irish regional airline headquartered in Dublin. It operated scheduled services under the brands Aer Lingus Regional, BA CityFlyer and KLM Cityhopper on behalf of the ...

and a US investor. On 24 June 2021, Ourmières-Widener was appointed CEO of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

's flag carrier

.Flight Global: "TAP Air Portugal confirms former Flybe chief as new CEO"
25 Jun 2021

Personal life

She runs marathons. Her husband Floyd Murray Widener works as a consultant. She has three children.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ourmières-Widener, Chris 1964 births French airline chief executives ESSEC Business School alumni Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering French women chief executives French women engineers Businesspeople from Avignon Living people 21st-century women engineers