For long, the Moscow-based group consisted of independently run and managed companies such as AirBridgeCargo, Volga-Dnepr Airlines, Atran and separate divisions responsible for technical
services, insurance issues and training activities. This amorphous structure, making it difficult to reconcile the group’s diverging parts with each other, will soon be homogenized. This was
decided during a meeting of the Group’s Board of Directors, published today (14JUL20).

Three new committees
Volga-Dnepr Group will be transformed into a “mono-company,” reads the release, run by a centralized and unified management. Thanks to this new structure, which, according to internal voices,
should give the entire group greater clout, thus ending the previous polyphony. In other words, the individual group members will be bound by central directives from the Steering Committee and
will not be allowed to take separate decisions and make public announcements, as has often been the case in the past.
The new structure is reflected in three new committees: Strategy and Transformation, Budget and Audit. These are run by the members of the Board of Directors, including a clear allocation of
responsibilities between the senior executives. Their names are:

• Alexey Isaikin – Chairman of the Board, founder and co-owner of the V-D Group.
• Sergey Shklyanik – Deputy Chairman, co-owner of the Volga-Dnepr Group.
• Tatiana Arslanova – Dep. Chairman, Executive Operating Director of the V-D Group
• Ruben Vardanyan – independent Director, Russian business leader, social entrepreneur and philanthropist.
• Giorgio Callegari – independent Director, member of the Boards of Directors in Insurance Public Companies Ingosstrakh and Enel Russia, and a former member of the Boards of Directors of
  Alitalia and Aeroflot.
• Ella Sytnik – an independent Director and a partner of Ward Howell, specializing in organizational transformation and team development management.
• Stanislav Tillich – an independent Director and former Prime Minister of Saxony, Germany.

Covid-driven transformation, claim the top V-D managers
During the Board Director’s meeting, the concept for transforming Volga-Dnepr Group of Airlines into a mono-company with centralized management was presented and endorsed. The decision was
spurred by Covid-19, emphasize the Board Directors, and the lasting effects of the pandemic on commercial aviation in general and the V-D Group’s business perspectives specifically.
Earlier this year, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Due to the pandemic and the resulting sharp increase in demand for air freight capacity in combination with high transport prices,
sales increased steeply, saving V-D from biting the dust.
Said this, the near crash was a serious warning, demanding structural changes to avoid recurrence. Hence, the exects agreed to optimize operations, improve efficiency and provide a consolidated
level of services for customers under the new realities of the pandemic.

Open questions remain
Aleksey Isaikin, Chairman of the V-D Board, summarized the results of the meeting: “Facing the challenges that have led to fundamental changes and revision of the cargo and passenger services
value from a biosecurity perspective, we have decided on the necessity for transformation. I am confident that a strong Board of Directors will help the executive team successfully transform and
adapt business leaders to the COVID-reality environment.”
Regrettably, the release does not address the consequences of the decision for the management of the individual V-D entities, nor does the announcement indicate possible effects on jobs. Whether
the restructured company will give itself a new name is also an open question.

Heiner Siegmund

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