Pieter (J.Th.) Elbers (1970) President & Chief Executive Officer of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM)

After obtaining his degrees in both engineering and business economics, Pieter Elbers started his career with KLM in 1992 on the ramp as Manager Aircraft loading.

This was followed by several managerial positions (commercial, alliances and route-network planning) in the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and Japan before becoming Chief Operations Officer (COO) in 2011.

In 2014, he took up the office as President & CEO of KLM. Since then he had lead KLM through an intensive transformation. In 2019, this resulted in a record turnover of €11 billion and improvement on all metrics around customer – and employee satisfaction and improvements in operational and financial indicators.

During 2020 and 2021, he led KLM through its toughest crisis as result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, KLM is widely recognized for its frontrunner approach in the field of sustainability.

Next to his current role at KLM, he is a member of the Board of Governors of IATA and the member of the board of the Dutch Employers organization.