Ever since he worked at a regional Danish airport in his summer holidays in between his studies, Vagn Sørensen has had a fascination with the air transport industry. After graduating from the Business School of Economics at the University of Aarhus in 1984, he entered SAS as a marketing trainee. A career dedicated to Scandinavia's flag carrier followed, with Sørensen rising rapidly at an airline then at the forefront of alliance and globalisation thinking under the leadership of Jan Carlzon.
By 1990, at the age of 31, he was vice-president route sector Europe, responsible for network planning throughout the continent.
A year later, he became vice-president SAS Airline International, and in 1993 he was promoted to senior vice-president and general manager SAS Business Division, a position he held for the rest of the decade.
A place at the top table beckoned last year as Sørensen was made executive vice-president and deputy chief executive officer.
But just months after came the SAS/Maersk Air price-fixing affair, and Sørensen resigned from SAS. The Austrian Airlines opportunity came just at the right time for the Dane, and he officially took office on 1 October.
He is married with a son and two daughters who have just made the move from Denmark to Vienna to join him.
Source: Airline Business
