In a continuing executive shakeup and pivot for Hertz, the global rental car company announced a team of new executives on July 8 who will fulfill leadership and oversight roles in key areas of operations.
The Hertz Corporation, which operates the Hertz, Dollar, and Thrifty car rental brands, said in a news release the team will "sharpen the company's focus on driving enhanced profitability." The new hires follow a tumultuous period of C-suite resignations and sudden departures coninciding with a rollback of the company's overly ambitious foray into electric rental vehicles, a subsequent decline in profits, and a record low stock price.
At the top of the new leadership team, Sandeep Dube will join Hertz as executive vice president and chief commercial officer on July 22, and Katherine Lee Martin, who serves as Hertz's interim general counsel, will be appointed to executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, effective immediately.
In addition, the following leaders are joining Hertz this month: Henry Kuykendall as executive vice president of North America operations; Greg May as executive vice president of fleet management, and Mike Moore as executive vice president of technical operations. Each executive will report to Hertz CEO Gil West.
Four of the five new executives served in leadership and management roles at Delta Air Lines, where new Hertz CEO Gil West previously served as chief operating officer.
"The leaders announced today, along with our new CFO Scott Haralson, add capacity and capabilities that complement our existing leadership team's deep institutional knowledge of the rental car industry," said West in a news release. "With this best-in-class leadership team, we are now set to execute our strategy to deliver sustainable growth and create value by excelling at the basics."
West added that the new team coupled with a new infusion of capital will enable the rental car company to accelerate its fleet rotation plan, improve its cost and revenue picture, and help the company "reach its full potential." He said the company is at an "inflection point on our path to generate greater value for our customers, employees, and shareholders."
Hertz shared the following background information on its new executives:
Dube will lead global commercial strategy and revenue generation for Hertz through an integrated customer-centric approach, overseeing revenue management and pricing, corporate sales and strategic partnerships, customer experience, product development, loyalty programs, marketing, and franchise. Dube has over 25 years of experience leading transformational growth for businesses. He most recently served as COO at Intuit Mailchimp. Before that, he was chief commercial officer at Activision Blizzard, and he held senior leadership roles at Delta Air Lines, including senior vice president of revenue management, where he lead revenue, product strategy, and commercial delivery; senior vice president of digital, loyalty, lounges, and consumer insights, and CEO of Delta Vacations.
Martin will continue to oversee Hertz's global legal affairs, government affairs, as well as sustainability and social impact teams. Martin has served as the company's interim general counsel and assistant corporate secretary since April 2024, after joining Hertz in May 2023 as vice president and chief counsel. Before joining Hertz, she held senior leadership positions at X Corp. and Twitter, where she oversaw the company's global portfolio of highly complex litigation, regulatory, and competition matters. Before joining Twitter, Martin spent more than a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kuykendall will oversee airport and off-airport car rental operations across North America. He previously spent 33 years at Delta Air Lines, where he held several key leadership roles focused on operations, customer service and sales, and the development of best-in-class processes. He most recently served as senior vice president of airport operations/East, overseeing all airport operations at Boston Logan International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport. In that role, Kuykendall also oversaw Delta's operations at 41 stations in the East and at 137 smaller airport locations across the U.S., which comprised over 20,000 employees and contractors.
May will lead all aspects of Hertz's fleet management, including fleet procurement and strategy, analytics, and vehicle remarketing. May has over 35 years of experience managing commercial aviation fleets and supply chains and has held leadership positions at Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and United Airlines, among other companies. He also founded aircraft leasing company Q Aviation and launched Valkyrie BTO Aviation, a commercial aircraft investment company for Blackstone where he most recently served as president and CEO.
Moore will lead all aspects of Hertz's fleet maintenance. Due to his over 25 years of experience managing fleet operations and maintenance, Moore has expertise in overseeing operations and delivering process improvements that reduce costs and drive enhanced financial performance. He has held leadership positions at Delta Air Lines, where he spent a decade in operations-focused roles of increasing responsibility, and at Northwest Airlines, among others. He most recently served as executive vice president of Spaceline technical operations at Virgin Galactic.
