EVP Corporate Communications Dig Istha to Leave KLM

Dig Istha, Executive Vice President - Corporate Communications, will leave KLM on September 1, 2000. He will take up a partnership in a consultancy for corporate communications and public affairs headed by Charles Huijskens. The agency, operating under the new name Huijskens & Istha, with both partners holding a fifty percent share, will focus on communications management, specializing in crisis, corporate and financial communication.

“I’ve had a wonderful time at KLM, but it was time for a change. Charles and I have worked together frequently in recent years and we both feel the time has come to combine our experience and creativity,” said Istha.

KLM President & CEO Leo van Wijk thanked Istha for his dedication to KLM over the past three years, remarking that Istha, with his extensive experience in communications and politics, had played an important part in improving KLM’s ties with government authorities and the media. Istha’s successor will be named in due course.

Prior to joining KLM in August 1997, Dig Istha headed Berenschot Communicatie. He also served as Chief Communications Officer for the Dutch Labor Party (PvdA) and spent thirteen years in diplomatic service, working in Rabat, Cairo, Brussels (NATO and EU) and The Hague, where he served as Chief Communications Officer and spokesman for Hans van den Broek, then Minister of Foreign Affairs. Huijskens and Istha both lecture at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague.