About

Operating within a remarkable organisation with a proud heritage, the group general counsel role of Deutsche Lufthansa has recently changed hands, with the highly-respected Dr Michael Niggemann moving to become CFO of the Lufthansa-owned Swiss Airlines to be replaced by Dr Stephan Zilles. When subsidiaries are taken into account (in addition to the aforementioned Swiss, the company also owns Eurowings and Austrian airlines), Deutsche Lufthansa is the largest airline in Europe by fleet size and the second-largest airline globally by passengers carried in 2016. Dr Zilles is the ideal person to take over the legal reigns of this enormous and highly complex operation. He was previously a legal counsel with Deutsche Lufthansa before moving from to airline catering behemoth LSG Lufthansa Service Holding as head of legal, compliance and corporate affairs. As such, he has huge knowledge of working in Lufthansa Group companies as well as invaluable experience of senior management positions with the company. Taking over the 130-person legal department of Deutsche Lufthansa, and ensuring the continued success of this prestigious and lucrative organisation is no mean feat, but Dr Zilles’ career successes to date mark him out as a highly talented in-house lawyer that will excel in his prominent new role.