Vanessa Hudson has been named as the new chief executive for Qantas, and will take up her position when Alan Joyce steps down in November.
She will become the first female CEO of the national carrier in its 103-year history, and was picked from a field of nearly 40 candidates from around the globe.
Qantas Chairman Richard Goyder says the board "firmly feel" Ms Hudson, who has been with the company for 28 years in a number of senior roles, is the "right person to take Qantas forward".
She will step into the top job at a time Qantas's reputation needs work; the Transport Workers Union (TWU) says she faces an "uphill" road to "rebuild" the company.
So who is Vanessa Hudson, and how has she become the boss of one of Australia's most iconic brands?
Rising through the ranks
After graduating from the University of Technology Sydney with a business degree in 1991, Ms Hudson became an auditor with accounting giant Deloitte the following year.
She joined Qantas in 1994 as an internal audit supervisor, before becoming a financial controller in the company's commercial division.
In 1997 she was appointed the catering product manager, which kickstarted her time within product services and saw her ascend to the role of executive manager of product and services in 2005.
In this role, Qantas said Ms Hudson "oversaw transformation in catering, airports and network aimed at driving better commercial and customer outcomes".
In 2013 she moved to Los Angeles to become senior vice-president of the Americas' arm of the airline, before returning to Sydney as the executive manager of sales and distribution in 2016, where she was responsible for the airline's revenue through all sales channels.
In February 2018, Ms Hudson was appointed chief customer officer, overseeing all of Qantas's customer service and strategy.
And in October 2019, she became the Qantas Group's chief financial officer.
Financial officer as COVID hit
Ms Hudson's tenure as CFO began just months before the COVID-19 pandemic ground the airline industry to a halt.
Alongside Mr Joyce, she navigated the company through choppy waters that saw nearly all of its international flights cut and the early retirement of its iconic Boeing 747 fleet.
The airline put its 12 Airbus A380s into storage, which saw a $1.4 billion write-down in the value of its assets.
Qantas announced thousands of redundancies across all parts of the business in June 2020, and the company recorded a $2 billion loss for 2019-2020 just a month later.
The following financial year saw a similar loss – slightly less at $1.73 billion – with internal estimates showing Qantas had endured around $16 billion in lost revenues since the pandemic began.
The pandemic also saw Qantas slash costs and restructure under Ms Hudson.
She oversaw the raising of billions of dollars in equity to offset the losses, as well as the sale of nearly 14 hectares of land at Mascot near the company's Sydney Airport base, which generated $802 million for the company in October 2021.
"The last three years, if I think about the decisions that collectively we made to get us through COVID, was not for the faint-hearted," she said.
"I think I could say that coming through that experience was probably the best training that I could ever have."
'A mother who wanted to lead'
Ms Hudson says she is "incredibly proud" to be the airline's first female CEO and hopes the number of females leading big organisations in Australia and abroad continues to grow.
"I have two young daughters," she said.
"I have always been a mother who has wanted to lead by example and listening to their reflections last night was incredibly meaningful to me."
Qantas board chairman Richard Goyder said Olivia Wirth, the CEO of the company's loyalty program, was also in contention for the top job.
"The two outstanding candidates were the two internal female candidates," he said.
Looking forward after rocky years
Ms Hudson was up front in recognising Qantas's customer service over the past six to 12 months was "not where we wanted it to be".
Qantas was handed a Shonky Award last year off the back of its controversial flight credits scheme, months of lost luggage, long call wait times and cancelled flights.
She said Qantas needed to review its fleet and improve facilities to deliver change for customers.
"We have an enormous amount of initiatives that are in the pipeline including investment in new lounges," she said.
On the other hand, she said she was looking forward to developing a "constructive relationship" with union leaders.
TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said the door was open to meet with Ms Hudson and establish a plan that would see workers treated as "an essential investment rather than a cost”.
