Atlas Air Wordwide’s board of directors has named Artem Gonopolskiy as the company’s permanent chief financial officer, after he had filled the role for several months on an interim basis.
The parent of New York-based cargo carrier Atlas Air said on 27 November that Gonopolskiy ”will lead all aspects of the company’s finance functions, including strategic financial planning, accounting, reporting, internal audit, tax, treasury and investor relations”.
Gonopolskiy has been filling the role since the June retirement of previous Atlas CFO Spencer Schwartz. He will continue reporting to chief executive officer Michael Steen.
David Siegel, chairman of the Atlas board of directors, said that company leadership has ”great confidence that Artem is the right executive to lead Atlas’ financial function”. The company had previously indicated that it was conducting a search for Schwartz’ successor.
Gonopolskiy joined Atlas in 2005 as a senior financial analyst and rose through the ranks, most recently working as senior vice-president, financial planning and analysis. He played a critical role in the company’s acquisition by an investor group led by Apollo Global Management in a deal completed earlier this year.
”Artem has been instrumental in driving the transformation of Atlas as a private company,” Steen says. ”We believe his commitment to delivering for our customers and stakeholders will add significant value to the company going forward.”
The move caps a year of significant leadership changes at Atlas that saw Steen take the reins from long-time CEO John Dietrich and the appointment of Martin Drew as chief strategy and transformation officer.
Atlas operates a fleet of Boeing jets, including 50 747s, 25 767s, eight 737s and three 777s, according to Cirium’s fleets analyser.
