American Airlines poaches tech chief Ganesh Jayaram from John Deere

American Airlines has hired John Deere tech chief Ganesh Jayaram as its new chief digital and information officer.

Jayaram, who spent 15 years at the Moline, Ill.-based tractor manufacturer, will join American Airlines on Sept. 1 to replace Maya Leibman, who announced in May that she was stepping down as chief information officer.

Jayaram is being called in to take over the airline’s complex technology operation, which is responsible for selling tickets to customers and coordinating thousands of flights, crew members and passengers daily. The airline is also in the midst of trying to transform its customer experience to be more consumer-friendly with more self-service and touchless options.

That’s become increasingly important as American and other airlines try to overcome challenges from stressed operations as consumer demand outpaces the number of pilots and other workers.

“Ganesh has a proven ability to drive innovation in large, complex global organizations that are focused on operational reliability,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in a statement. “His leadership style, global expertise and success in building and implementing both business and technology strategy will serve him incredibly well as he steps in to lead our technology team.”

While John Deere is known for its legacy farming equipment, Jayaram has overseen a technology operation that’s increasingly focused on robotics, cloud storage, data analytics and complex sensors.

Jayaram just took over the position as John Deere’s chief information officer in May. Before that, he oversaw the company’s tech operation going back to 2016 and also worked as the company’s vice president of information technology and as vice president of corporate strategy and business development.

Leibman is stepping down to move to London for family reasons after starting with the company in 1994. She will remain with the company in another role in the United Kingdom to take on “international responsibilities,” the company said.