PAL names new commercial, HR heads

MANILA, Philippines — Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has started assembling key executive pieces as part of its transition to a new leadership.

PAL officer-in-charge Vivienne Tan announced yesterday the appointment of two key executives who will lead the airline’s commercial and human resources groups.

Tan named Eugene Go as PAL chief commercial and marketing officer and Rosemarie Katalbas as senior vice president of human capital department.

“We’re working to make PAL more efficient and productive by improving business procedures – how we do things,” Tan said.

PAL said Katalbas has a vast experience in leadership roles in human resource management across multiple industries, both in the region and globally.

Katalbas was awarded the People Manager of the year by the People Management Association of the Philippines and was recently the recipient of the Philippines’ Most Talented Leaders (2018) World HRD Congress.

Go, a product of De La Salle University with post-graduate studies in Singapore Institute of Technology, meanwhile, has over 27 years of marketing and commercial experience in companies like Unilever and Johnson & Johnson.

He is an Agora awardee for Marketing Excellence.

“With unity, there is strength and with strength in numbers, we will make PAL succeed together,” Tan said in a message to PAL executives and staff following its weekly flag raising ceremony yesterday.

“My father said: PAL is more than just an airline, it represents the country – the Philippines. So I wish to remind all of you: as you carry out your work, your duties, you’re not merely representing the company, but also the country because the Philippines is PAL and PAL is the Philippines,” Tan said.

Tan has been named OIC following the retirement of Jaime Bautista as the company’s president and COO which took effect last June 30.