More Executive Changes
Oct 19, 2016 | 10:31 am
#16
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United Lifts Travel Experience With New Integrated Customer Service Team
Company Names Kate Gebo Senior Vice President of Customer Service Delivery
CHICAGO, Oct. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines today announced a new team, integrating all customer-facing functions in the company, to focus on improving the travel experience. Kate Gebo will lead this new organization as senior vice president of Customer Service Delivery. In this newly created position, Gebo will oversee all of United's customer-facing teams from booking to landing.
"Our customers have told us they want a more consistent, positive experience, and bringing all of our people that serve customers daily into the same team ensures a great experience at every point in their travel," said Scott Kirby, president of United. "Kate has been a key member of the leadership team and in her career at United has proven her ability to build strong, effective teams with an employee and customer focus."
Gebo will report to Greg Hart, executive vice president and chief operations officer of United. She currently serves as vice president, office of the CEO, where she works with CEO Oscar Munoz to coordinate company strategy with the executive team. Gebo has more than 20 years of airline experience, working across several functions at United, including leading the corporate real estate function, where she improved United's overall customer experience with new airport facilities and services.
Gebo has her bachelor's degree in finance from DePaul University and her MBA from Loyola University of Chicago.
Company Names Kate Gebo Senior Vice President of Customer Service Delivery
CHICAGO, Oct. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines today announced a new team, integrating all customer-facing functions in the company, to focus on improving the travel experience. Kate Gebo will lead this new organization as senior vice president of Customer Service Delivery. In this newly created position, Gebo will oversee all of United's customer-facing teams from booking to landing.
"Our customers have told us they want a more consistent, positive experience, and bringing all of our people that serve customers daily into the same team ensures a great experience at every point in their travel," said Scott Kirby, president of United. "Kate has been a key member of the leadership team and in her career at United has proven her ability to build strong, effective teams with an employee and customer focus."
Gebo will report to Greg Hart, executive vice president and chief operations officer of United. She currently serves as vice president, office of the CEO, where she works with CEO Oscar Munoz to coordinate company strategy with the executive team. Gebo has more than 20 years of airline experience, working across several functions at United, including leading the corporate real estate function, where she improved United's overall customer experience with new airport facilities and services.
Gebo has her bachelor's degree in finance from DePaul University and her MBA from Loyola University of Chicago.
Oct 19, 2016 | 10:59 am
#18
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Oct 19, 2016 | 11:10 am
#19
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Oct 19, 2016 | 5:11 pm
#21
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Will be interesting how this forms. All these departments have SVPs already in place. Greg Hart also has a Chief of Staff for the COO with the equivalent of a VP.
Oct 21, 2016 | 9:48 am
#22
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Has never done a stint in a function at CO or UA that managed customer facing employees that I can see.
Then takes over and expands Sandra's role to I guess include airport agents? It's not clear to me what makes it more 'end to end' than before.
Sandra was someone who did rotations in many parts of the company, including contact centers, before taking over all the food/clubs/customer experience/contact centers last year. Was considered a 'fresh start' for the customer service role.
Haven't met Kate in person. Have met Sandra - she's personable, a bit skittish on the flyertalk community, but willing to answer questions and put in time at events. Thought she was well liked.
My overall impression of UA was it's a very, very political place, which tends to happen at large organizations that aren't growing quickly.
https://twitter.com/kategebo
https://twitter.com/SandraPineauB
My fear is Kate helped 'create a role' at the expense of Sandra given her close access to Oscar during his transition, but that's just mindless speculation without knowing the full story.
Kate appears more 'boardroom friendly' (corp real estate is high profile - lots of big $$ deals /contracts) while Sandra comes across as more empathetic.
Not sure which is better for us as customers but hope Oscar made the right choice.
Oct 21, 2016 | 2:07 pm
#23
Join Date: May 2013
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I didn't realize Kate Gebo, who is replacing Sandra, was sitting in an 'office of the CEO' role for the last year as a VP, prior to that was VP of real estate.
Has never done a stint in a function at CO or UA that managed customer facing employees that I can see.
Then takes over and expands Sandra's role to I guess include airport agents? It's not clear to me what makes it more 'end to end' than before.
Sandra was someone who did rotations in many parts of the company, including contact centers, before taking over all the food/clubs/customer experience/contact centers last year. Was considered a 'fresh start' for the customer service role.
Haven't met Kate in person. Have met Sandra - she's personable, a bit skittish on the flyertalk community, but willing to answer questions and put in time at events. Thought she was well liked.
My overall impression of UA was it's a very, very political place, which tends to happen at large organizations that aren't growing quickly.
https://twitter.com/kategebo
https://twitter.com/SandraPineauB
My fear is Kate helped 'create a role' at the expense of Sandra given her close access to Oscar during his transition, but that's just mindless speculation without knowing the full story.
Kate appears more 'boardroom friendly' (corp real estate is high profile - lots of big $$ deals /contracts) while Sandra comes across as more empathetic.
Not sure which is better for us as customers but hope Oscar made the right choice.
Has never done a stint in a function at CO or UA that managed customer facing employees that I can see.
Then takes over and expands Sandra's role to I guess include airport agents? It's not clear to me what makes it more 'end to end' than before.
Sandra was someone who did rotations in many parts of the company, including contact centers, before taking over all the food/clubs/customer experience/contact centers last year. Was considered a 'fresh start' for the customer service role.
Haven't met Kate in person. Have met Sandra - she's personable, a bit skittish on the flyertalk community, but willing to answer questions and put in time at events. Thought she was well liked.
My overall impression of UA was it's a very, very political place, which tends to happen at large organizations that aren't growing quickly.
https://twitter.com/kategebo
https://twitter.com/SandraPineauB
My fear is Kate helped 'create a role' at the expense of Sandra given her close access to Oscar during his transition, but that's just mindless speculation without knowing the full story.
Kate appears more 'boardroom friendly' (corp real estate is high profile - lots of big $$ deals /contracts) while Sandra comes across as more empathetic.
Not sure which is better for us as customers but hope Oscar made the right choice.
I've been friends with people in similar 'Office of the CEO' roles and this is generally a rotational position for someone who is very bright with high potential. The lack of direct customer-facing experience shouldn't be immediately concerning. There are direct reports with oversight over each of the different areas and a good leader would depend on the functional expertise of their team. Clearly, Kate is someone who's worked well with Oscar. That alone should give us some comfort.
Oct 21, 2016 | 2:54 pm
#24
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All stakeholders are in trouble if Oscar falls for a subordinate who creates a roll to force someone else out.
I've been friends with people in similar 'Office of the CEO' roles and this is generally a rotational position for someone who is very bright with high potential. The lack of direct customer-facing experience shouldn't be immediately concerning. There are direct reports with oversight over each of the different areas and a good leader would depend on the functional expertise of their team. Clearly, Kate is someone who's worked well with Oscar. That alone should give us some comfort.
I've been friends with people in similar 'Office of the CEO' roles and this is generally a rotational position for someone who is very bright with high potential. The lack of direct customer-facing experience shouldn't be immediately concerning. There are direct reports with oversight over each of the different areas and a good leader would depend on the functional expertise of their team. Clearly, Kate is someone who's worked well with Oscar. That alone should give us some comfort.
My scenario was based on seeing worse outcomes than this happen with those chief of staff / office of CEO roles though! Being that close is always an advantage in the organization and at the end of the rotation you want somewhere logical to land, and that can come at the expense of other capable folks, even if the new person is perfectly capable.