SITA appoints SVP to run new global Customer Services and commits 1,400 staff

SITA, the specialist provider of IT solutions to the air transport industry, today signalled a major shake-up of its customer services worldwide with the appointment from July 1, of Dave Bakker as Senior Vice President, Customer Services and Operations. He will be tasked with delivering best-in-class customer services to SITA’s 600 members and 1,800 customers through a new organization comprising 1,400 SITA staff.

Francesco Violante, SITA CEO, said: “Our expectation, following the full implementation of this new organization, will be the provision of best-in-class customer services on a global basis and a more effective, integrated, end-to-end operations capability which will directly deliver value and benefits to our customers so improving our competitive market position and the end-customer experience.”

The new SVP role and organization will combine the responsibility for existing regional and business unit customer services into one unified Customer Services and Operations entity.

Dave Bakker joins SITA from Dell Inc. where he has held customer service leadership roles in both Europe and Asia over the last 10 years. A Dutch national, he commenced his career in sales and later progressed through project management and technical support management roles before moving into customer services.

Dave Bakker has extensive experience of managing innovative customer service delivery models and has hands-on experience of the implementation of large scale CRM technologies. Most recently, he was responsible for Global Strategy and Planning for Customer Services in Dell, in addition to managing a regional team of 2,600 customer services staff across Asia Pacific and Japan. He is fluent in five languages.