Digital Product Executive
Marthe
van Rooij
Marthe van Rooij
I build the digital experience that 75 million travellers have with Air France and KLM - from the first search to landing.
SVP Digital Product Management at the Air France-KLM group. >550 people across Amsterdam, Paris, Valbonne, Toulouse, Budapest and Chennai. What drives me is not the scale - it is making something genuinely complex feel effortless to the person using it. Based in Amsterdam.
Product is not a department or a deliverable. It is a way of working that puts the customer at the centre of every decision, not just the ones that feel obviously customer-facing.
At Air France-KLM my scope runs from the customer touchpoints like web and app, all the way down to the APIs and underlying platform capabilities. Much of it is invisible to the customer but critical for the business: strategy, platform, and the capability to deliver it at scale.
The question I keep coming back to: how do you build products that feel personal at the scale of 100 million customers? That is not a design or a technology question. There is a real tension between intimacy and scale, between speed and quality. That is where I spend a lot of my thinking.
AI is sharpening that thinking now. Not as a trend, but as a structural shift in who owns the customer relationship. When technology moves faster than any organisation can build, the software itself becomes disposable. The real competitive advantage is what you cannot lose: the relationship, the data, the trust. Everything else is replaceable.
Opinions, not observations
Four things I think about a lot, working in product, technology, and travel.
01
Direct or dependent
If an AI agent handles the inspiration, the discovery, and the booking, what is the airline's front-end still for? Whoever has not built a direct digital relationship will pay for it twice: once to whoever owns that moment, and again to win the customer back. I have no doubt about the direction, only about how fast it will move. Waiting to find out tends to be the most expensive instinct.
02
Own what matters
Build gives you control, but it comes with real responsibility and your capacity is scarce. Buy is the right answer for specialised capabilities: a CMS, analytics, experimentation tooling. Own your architecture, let everything else connect on your terms. What I do not believe in is the large, all-in-one package — a black box you cannot open. That is the opposite of ownership.
03
Personalisation is a trust problem
Most personalisation fails because teams optimise for conversion rather than relevance. Customers notice the difference - even when they cannot name it. The ones who get it right treat data as a responsibility, not just a tool. That distinction is harder than it sounds.
04
Curiosity is a leadership discipline
The leaders I respect most are not the ones with the best answers. They are the ones who keep asking better questions — even, and especially, when they are expected to know. Staying curious is not a personality trait. It is a choice you make under pressure, repeatedly.
A career in motion
-
2023 - present
Air France-KLM
SVP Digital Product Management
Defining the scope and direction of digital product for Air France and KLM - from inspiration and first search through booking, travel, and post-trip retention. End-to-end means exactly that: strategy, build, deploy, maintain, and phase out. This covers portfolio management, monitoring and dashboarding, data infrastructure, digital finance, and a full design capability spanning research, product design, content, and accessibility.
~250 direct FTE ~45M EUR budget App, web & loyalty Flying Blue -
2020 - 2023
Air France-KLM
VP Digital Product
Built and delivered the Air France and KLM digital product portfolio across web, app, onboard, and APIs - leading roughly 45 autonomous product teams from strategy through execution. Accountable for conversion, architecture, quality, and performance across all customer-facing touchpoints.
80 direct reports ~450 IT professionals Full portfolio ownership -
2016 - 2020
Air France-KLM
Director Digitizing Passenger Operations
Drove the digital transformation of KLM Passenger Business Operations through mobile applications and APIs supporting 17,000 front-line staff. Developed Inflight Connectivity on Air France-KLM aircraft and positioned "onboard" as a digital touchpoint.
17,000 front-line staff Inflight connectivity 10M EUR budget -
2015 - 2016
Air France-KLM
Digital Experience Manager
Defined and implemented the commercial API strategy as technical enabler for merging Air France and KLM's digital development capabilities (eConvergence). Established scaled agile ways of working across 300+ IT professionals.
API strategy 300+ IT professionals -
2013 - 2015
Air France-KLM · Paris
Program Director Transavia
Defined the European point-to-point strategy for Air France-KLM by repositioning Transavia as a European low-cost brand, facilitating growth in France (CAGR 2013–2018: 25%). Integrated financial reporting and commercial strategy of Transavia Netherlands and France.
CAGR 25% European LCC strategy -
2009 - 2013
Air France-KLM · Paris
Senior Pricing Manager
Defined and implemented the intercontinental pricing strategy for home and international markets and global corporate clients. Coordinated pricing for Delta Air Lines, Kenya Airways, Air Mauritius, and GOL. Managing a team of 13 and a revenue portfolio of 2.3B EUR/year.
2.3B EUR portfolio 13 direct reports -
2007 - 2009
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Yield Analyst
Optimized revenue on intercontinental flights by forecasting demand and passenger value. Revenue portfolio of 200M EUR/year.
200M EUR portfolio -
2007
LSG Sky Chefs · Lufthansa · Frankfurt
Product Manager
Developed and implemented technical in-flight service equipment and processes for airline customers including Lufthansa, Virgin, and Alaska Airlines.
Lufthansa, Virgin, Alaska
Let's connect
I'm open to conversations about leadership roles, board advisory, speaking, or strategic collaboration - particularly in digital product, travel, or AI.
I occasionally write about digital leadership and product thinking. If something here resonates, I am happy to continue the conversation.
Reach me directly