Wheels Up makes another executive appointment

Wheels Up has named former eBay and Adobe leader Francesca Molinari as Chief People Officer

Wheels Up earlier today made another senior executive announcement. Former eBay, Adobe, and GE executive Francesca Molinari joins in the newly created Chief People Officer position.

In this role, Molinari will lead all aspects of human resources and culture at Wheels Up, including organizational design, talent acquisition, development, and retention, as well as diversity and inclusion functions. Molinari will report directly to Wheels Up Founder and CEO Kenny Dichter.

“Francesca’s deep experience running global HR for some of the world’s largest digital brands will be key in furthering our culture, attracting new talent, and leveraging the strength and passion of our over 2,000 Wheels Up employees,” said Dichter.

He added, “With her leadership, we will continue to strive for organizational excellence and to foster an exceptionally smart, motivated, and diverse team.”

“I am excited to be joining a company that believes as strongly in supporting their own employees as they do in supporting their Members and Customers. I’m impressed by everyone at Wheels Up and their passion for the company and being a part of a winning culture,” said Molinari.

Molinari most recently led Human Resources Business Partnering for Adobe’s Digital Experience marketing cloud business, focusing on driving organizational growth, scalability, and transformation for more than 5,000 employees worldwide.

She successfully achieved high employee engagement and retention levels while supporting the business’ organic growth and the back-to-back acquisitions of Magento and Marketo. Before her time at Adobe, she served as Chief Human Resources Officer at Magento. Molinari also held leadership roles in people management for major corporations, including eBay, GE Capital, and Macy’s.

Wheels Up growth

Her appointment follows over a dozen major appointments, acquisitions, and launches over the past 19 months. Wheels Up tapped former Delta Air Lines executive Gail Grimmett as chief experience officer, ex-JetSuite president Stephanie Chung as chief growth officer, Grey Goose CMO Lee Applbaum to the same role, and former Airbnb and Amazon executive Greg Greeley as chairman of its marketplace.

Earlier this month, Wheels Up bought Mountain Aviation, the 10th largest Part 135 operator in the U.S. That followed acquisitions of Delta Private Jets, Gama Aviation Signature, TMC Jets, and tech platform Avianis.

The company also launched Wheels Up Aircraft Sales grabbing executives from NetJets owned QS Partners and Jetcraft, another large broker of preowned private jets.

Wheels Up’s HR vision

Molinari tells Private Jet Card Comparisons she plans to tap into her broad experience from large blue-chip organizations and smaller entrepreneurial companies with the culture of the Wheels Up ethos and, importantly, the companies it has acquired. “We connected with these companies for reasons that have real value,” she notes. However, there’s no set formula. “It’s not about implementing a playbook,” she says.