Dr. Nina Scherf appointed legal leader by Tui

Dr. Nina Scherf appointed legal leader by Tui

She will begin work at the Hanover-based firm from April 1

Tui, the world's largest tourism company, has named Dr, Nina Scherf as its next legal leader while looking to return to growth after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Scherf, the former chief legal counsel for the German industrial technology group GEA (Gesellschaft für Entstaubungsanlagen), succeeds Dr. Hilka Schneider, who left Tui early this year to be general counsel for Amsterdam-based chemicals manufacturer Akzo Nobel.

Speaking on her appointment, Fritz Joussen, the CEO of Tui commented, "I am very pleased that Scherf, with her extensive experience, wants to actively shape Tui's future. With her international team, she will be an important advisor and strategic partner for the Group and its subsidiaries on our joint course for growth and the future."

Scherf will be responsible for Tui's legal and compliance functions and the board office. She will also be a member of the group executive committee. The company, which has dual stock market listings in Frankfurt and London, described Scherf as an expert in "all relevant legal areas such as corporate, capital markets and commercial law, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, board office and compliance."

With a doctorate in corporate law, Scherf joined GEA in 2005 as legal counsel after stints as an associate in the Frankfurt office of German law firm Hengeler Mueller and as a foreign associate at Mayer Brown in New York. From 2012, she served as GEA's chief legal officer and chief compliance officer, before leaving the company in 2020, after which she worked as a freelance lawyer.

Her appointment comes at a time when the company expects to return to profitability. It had reported a profit of €893.5 in 2019 to losses of billions of euros in 2020 and 2021. In February the company reported that revenue for Q1 2022 was five times higher than in the same period the previous year, rising from €468m to €2.37bn. Q1 2022 also saw 2.3m people travel with the company, more than four times the number in the same period in 2021.

Presently, the tourism firm has to also handle the fallout from the sanctions by the European Union against Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov, who holds around a third of the share capital in the company.

However, Tui had recently announced that Mordashov had resigned from its supervisory board as a result of the sanctions. It stated, "The EU sanctions relate to Mordashov as a person, not to Tui, in which he is a shareholder. The sanctions against the shareholder will have no impact on the company. As with any German public limited company, the operative business of Tui is managed by the Executive Board."