Canada Post chief Moya Greene is the favourite to replace Adam Crozier as CEO of Royal Mail,according to widespread British media reports.
Greene, who would be the first female head of Royal Mail, is reportedly in talks to take up thepost vacated by Crozier, who became head of British TV broadcaster ITV in April. Her appointment isexpected to be officially announced within the next few days and has already been welcomed by theCommunication Workers Union.
As Royal Mail CEO, Greene would face the task of modernising the British postal operator,finding strategic responses to the structural changes in the mail and parcels market, improvingrelationships with the CWU union and working closely with the new government, which plans topart-privatise the company.
At Canada Post, where she became CEO in 2005, Greene has led the restructuring of the largepostal operator and improved its financial performance significantly in response to declining mailvolumes. The organisation is in the midst of a CAD 2 billion “Postal Transformation” programmedesigned to modernise its operations. In 2009, Canada Post more than tripled its net profit to 281million Canadian dollars (€211 million) thanks to stringent cost cutting measures and one-offfinancial effects and despite a 5% revenue fall to CAD 7.3 billion (€5.47 billion).
In a speech at the European Postal Services conference in Brussels in March, Greene presentedthe transformation of Canada Post from an outdated, unsustainable business model with lowproductivity into a modernised organisation with better internal communications, new equipment anda streamlined workforce backed by stakeholder support for changes.
In response to the media reports, Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “It’s good tosee the appointment of a person with a public sector background to Royal Mail. It’s important thatthe new chief executive continues to move ahead with business transformation in partnership withthe CWU. We look forward to meeting Moya Greene and establishing a productive workingrelationship.”
