Effective August 1, 2015, Rahul Chakkara will join and strengthen the Costa Group's leadership team as the new Chief Digital Officer, following the creation of the Costa Group's Digital Unit in Hamburg earlier this year. He will report directly to Michael Thamm, the Group's CEO.
“I am very pleased that, with Rahul, we have brought on board a leader with international experience, who will successfully lead the continued growth of our company by putting digital at the heart of our engagement with customers, operations, services and employee experience,” said Michael Thamm.
Before joining Grupo Costa, Rahul Chakkara worked at Talk Talk PLC, a British telecommunications company, where he successfully led the digital transformation of its consumer division. Previously, he was Managing Director of Future Media at the BBC, where he played a key role in the development of BBC iPlayer and Youview.
The Costa Group's Digital Unit was created in the spring of 2015 in Hamburg (Germany) with the aim of supporting the group's brands, Costa Cruises, Costa Asia and AIDA Cruises, using digital innovation, products and technology to improve customer interaction and satisfaction and, above all, to further increase the safety of its passengers and crew through further digitalization and support for environmental, safety and security processes within the Costa Group.
