More about the honorees
Carsten Spohr has been Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG since May 1, 2014. He leads the Lufthansa Group with the business segments Network Airlines, Eurowings, Logistics, and MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) with over 100,000 employees worldwide.
After graduating with a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, Carsten Spohr obtained a commercial pilot’s license at the Lufthansa Flight Training school in Bremen and Phoenix. As a member of the central junior research group, he then completed the trainee program at Deutsche Aerospace AG in Munich.
In 1994, Carsten Spohr returned to Deutsche Lufthansa and initially took over the management of central personnel marketing. From 1995 onward, he served as Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Executive Board until he assumed responsibility for Lufthansa’s regional partnerships in Europe in 1998. In 2000, Carsten Spohr was appointed head of the alliance management of Deutsche Lufthansa. In this function, he was responsible for the management and coordination of Lufthansa’s worldwide cooperation partners, including Star Alliance and regional partners. In 2003, he also assumed responsibility for the passenger strategy and the passenger shareholdings of Deutsche Lufthansa. In October 2004, Carsten Spohr was appointed to the Executive Board of Lufthansa Passenger Airlines. His responsibilities included hub management along with cabin crew and personnel management.
Carsten Spohr was appointed Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Cargo AG effective January 15, 2007. On January 1, 2011, he became a member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Chairman of the Lufthansa Passage Executive Board.
Carsten Spohr holds the Lufthansa Captain’s license for the Airbus A320 Family aircraft types. He is married and has two daughters.
Evan Gershkovich is a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained in Russia on March 29, 2023, while doing his job as a journalist. He was freed on August 1, 2024, as part of the largest and most complex East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War. He is the American-born son of Soviet-era emigres to the U.S. Evan Gershkovich learned Russian from his parents and built a career as a journalist focused on the region. He joined the Journal in January 2022 and before that reported from Moscow for Agence France Press and the Moscow Times.