Key personnel
Directors of easyJet plc
The following are directors of easyJet plc:
Sir Colin Chandler, Non-executive Chairman
Colin (1942) joined easyJet in April 2002 and is also currently Chairman of Vickers Defence Systems, a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Plc and Deputy Chairman of Smiths Group Plc. He is Pro-Chancellor of Cranfield University. He was formerly Chairman and CEO of Racal Electronics (1999-2000); a director of Guardian Royal Exchange (1995-1999) and from 1990-1999 he was variously Managing Director, Chief Executive and Chairman of Vickers Plc. In his earlier career, he held various posts at British Aerospace Plc and its predecessor companies and undertook a four-and-a-half year secondment to the Ministry of Defence. He is a UK national and was knighted in June 1988 for services to export.
Andrew Harrison, Chief Executive
Andrew (1957) joined easyJet as Chief Executive on 1 December 2005.
Andrew joined Lex Service plc in 1996 as Chief Executive and led its transformation from a vehicle distribution company into RAC plc, a strongly-branded, consumer-facing services company with 6.5 million members. RAC plc delivered strong growth in a variety of consumer services, which included BSM, financial and legal services, as well as good expansion in business services, winning large contracts. The successful integration of Lex and RAC resulted in a strong rise in profits and a tripling of the share price during Andrew’s tenure as Chief Executive.
Since 2000 Andrew has been a Non-Executive Director at Emap, where he chairs the Audit Committee. Prior to Lex Service, Andrew was an Executive Director of Courtaulds Textiles plc since 1990.
Jeff Carr, Group Finance Director
Jeff (1961) joined easyJet in March 2005. Jeff brings considerable experience in consumer facing companies and an international background which has included periods in mainland Europe and the USA. Jeff's most recent role prior to joining easyJet was as Director of Finance, Performance and Planning at Associated British Foods, an international food and retail group with annual sales of £5.2bn. Before joining Associated British Foods Jeff held the position of Senior Vice President, Finance at ReckittBenckiser. In this role Jeff was responsible for the finance organisations in North America, Latin America and Australia. In total Jeff spent 9 years at ReckittBenckiser where he also held the posiitons as Finance Director, UK and Vice President Finance, North America. Earlier in his career Jeff spent five years at Grand Metropolitan where he worked on various acquisitions in Europe as part of the Pillsbury Group. During this time Jeff moved to Germany to take up the position of Finance Director at Pillsbury GmbH. Jeff started his career at Unilever and is a UK national.
David Michels, Non-executive Director
David (1947) spent 15 years with Grand Metropolitan, mainly in sales and marketing, which culminated in a Board position as Worldwide Marketing Director. Following Ladbroke Group’s acquisition of Hilton International in 1987, David Michels became Hilton’s Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. In 1989 he moved up to become Deputy Chairman of Hilton UK, and Executive Vice President, Hilton International. He joined Stakis as Chief Executive in 1991. Eight years later the company was acquired by Hilton Group for around £1.2 billion. He joined Hilton International as Chief Executive in April 1999 and became Group Chief Executive of the Hilton Group (formerly Ladbroke Group) in June 2000. David is a UK national.
Dawn Airey, Non-executive Director
Dawn (1960) joined easyJet in 2004. Dawn has held a number of senior positions during her career in national television broadcasting spanning 19 years, including Chief Executive of Channel 5 (from 2000 - 2002) and in January 2003 took up her current position of Managing Director of Sky Networks at British Sky Broadcasting. The Royal Television Society awarded Dawn a fellowship in June 1998. From 1999-2002, she was a member of the government's Film Council, and in 1999, she became a governor of the Banff Television Festival, which takes place annually in Canada. She is also an Honorary Committee Member of the Monte Carlo Television Festival. In 2001, she became a Vice President of the Royal Television Society and in 2002, she became the Executive Chair of the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, a post she held for three years. That same year, she became a member of the Board of the International Emmy Awards and co-hosted the ceremony in November 2003, in New York. Dawn was born in Lancashire in 1960 and was educated at Kelly College, Girton College, Cambridge and Harvard Business School. Dawn is a UK national.
David Bennett, Non-executive Director
David Bennett (1962) was appointed to the Board in October 2005 as chairman of the Audit Committee. He is currently Group Chief Executive of Alliance and Leicester plc. David has many years experience in the financial sector. He previously held positions as Finance Director of Cheltenham & Gloucester plc and then as an Executive Director of the National Bank of New Zealand Ltd.
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Founder and Non-executive Director
Stelios (1967) founded easyJet in 1995. Prior to that, he founded Stelmar Tankers, a shipping company which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001 and in which he retains a significant shareholding, but no longer sits on the board.
In 1998, he established the easy group of companies, with the objective of exploiting the ''easy'' brand for ventures other than easyJet. Such ventures launched thus far include easylnternetCafe, a chain of internet cafes, easyCar, a budget car rental business, easyValue, an internet price comparison service, easyMoney, a personal finance service and easy.com, an internet portal and e-mail service, easyBus, a low-cost intercity travel service, easyMusic, for downloading music online, easyCinema, low-cost movie theatres, easyHotel, for budget hotel rooms, easyCruise, for low-cost holidays at sea, easyPizza, a budget online home delivery service, easyTelecom and easyMobile for fixed line and mobile telecoms, and easy4Men, gentleman’s toiletries.
Stelios retired as Chairman and as a director of easyJet plc in November 2002. He is a national of the UK and Cyprus. In May 2005 Stelios rejoined the Board as a non-executive director.
Professor Rigas Doganis, Non-executive Director
Professor Rigas Doganis was appointed to the Board in December 2005. Rigas is an aviation consultant and strategy adviser to airlines, airports, banks and governments around the world. He is Chairman of the European Aviation Club in Brussels and a director of Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.
John Browett (Independent Non Executive Director)
John Browett (43) joined easyJet in September 2007. He is currently Operations Development Director of Tesco Plc. A graduate of Cambridge University and Wharton Business School, John has held a number of executive director positions at Tesco since joining the business as Group Strategy Director in 1998. John ran Tesco.com from 2000 to 2004 where he was responsible for formulating and delivering its strategy from launch to profitability. Prior to joining Tesco,he was at the Boston Consulting Group between 1993 and 1998. John will join DSG International plc as CEO in early December 2007.
Sven Boinet (Independent Non Executive Director)
Sven Boinet (1953) was appointed to the board of easyJet in March 2008.
Sven, a French national, is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Group Lucien Barrière, the €1.2 billion turnover company created from the merger of the gaming activities of Accor and Lucien Barrière. A graduate of Stanford University, he previously held a number of senior management roles over a 15-year period at the French hotels group, Accor. He was also a non-executive director of Lastminute.com from 2003 until its sale to Sabre in 2005.
Executive management team
The following are on the management board of easyJet, responsible for the day-to-day running of the company.
Andrew Harrison, Chief Executive Officer
Andrew (1957) became Chief Executive Officer on 1 December 2005. He was previously the Chief Executive of RAC plc prior to its acquisition by Aviva plc in 2005. Andrew joined Lex Service plc in 1996 as Chief Executive and led its transformation from a vehicle distribution company into RAC plc, a strongly-branded, consumer-facing services company with 6.5 million members. RAC plc delivered strong growth in a variety of consumer services, which included BSM, financial and legal services, as well as good expansion in business services, winning large contracts. The successful integration of Lex and RAC resulted in a strong rise in profits and a tripling of the share price during Andrew’s tenure as Chief Executive. Andrew was a Non Executive Director at Emap between 2000 and 2008 where he also chaired the Audit Committee. Prior to Lex Service, Andrew was an Executive Director of Courtaulds Textiles plc.
Jeff Carr, Group Finance Director
Jeff (1961) was appointed as Group Finance Director in March 2005. Prior to joining easyJet, Jeff was Director of Finance, Performance and Planning for Associated British Foods plc. He has previously held senior financial positions with Unilever, Grand Metropolitan and Reckitt Benckiser. In addition to experience with major consumer orientated companies, Jeff has wide international experience in both mainland Europe and in the USA.
Mike Campbell, People Director
Mike (1957) joined easyJet in October 2005 as People Director. Before joining easyJet Mike worked at Wedgwood in a broad role as Director of People and Brands and Managing Director for Canada, Australia and Pan-Asia. Prior to that Mike worked for 14 years at Fujitsu in a variety of development and personnel roles across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, ending up as Chief Personnel Officer. His early career was in education and research. Mike has a BSC in Mathematics and Masters in Fluid Dynamics. Mike is a UK national.
Saad Hammad, Chief Commercial Officer
Saad (1962) joined easyJet in November 2005, bringing considerable commercial experience in international consumer-focused businesses. Saad has held senior positions in brand management, sales & marketing and retailing at Procter & Gamble, Thorn-EMI, Vision Express, and Minit. He was also Case Leader at the Boston Consulting Group working primarily with consumer goods manufacturers and retailers. In addition, Saad was Managing Director – Europe at Tibbett & Britten, the market leader in consumer product logistics, and CEO of Autocascade, a pan-European web-based yield management start-up. Saad holds an undergraduate degree from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD. Saad is a Non-Executive Director at Optos plc, the leading medical retinal imaging technology company. Saad is a UK national
Neil Mills, Procurement Director
Neil (1971) joined easyJet in 1997. He was appointed Procurement Director in June 2008 after eleven years in a range of roles across most departments in the company. Neil is responsible for all the fleet transactions and procurement across the company and has responsibility for the Airport and ground handling costs which are second to only Jet Fuel in scale. Neil is an accountant by training and a UK national.
Tim Newing, IT Director
Tim (1959) joined easyJet in August 2006. He has a wide range of experience across the technology spectrum and has played a major role in the development of the National Lottery over a ten year period, first as Technical Manager for IT supplier GTECH UK before joining Camelot as Head of Projects and Networks in December 2000 and becoming IT Director in March 2002. During this time, Tim has successfully developed and delivered a series of massive programs that saw a period of major technological innovation, significantly enhancing the systems architecture and key business processes within Europe’s biggest lottery company, and, at the same time ensuring high reliability and availability from the production systems. His achievements saw him recognised as the 2005 IT Director of the Year in the Jaeger-LeCoultre Telegraph Business Awards. Tim is a UK national.
Toby Nicol, Communications Director
Toby (1970) joined easyJet in December 1999. He was appointed Communications Director in September 2005 after six years in a range of communications and lobbying roles within the Company and has been part of the Airline Management Board since mid 2004. Toby is responsible for the Company’s communications, lobbying and regulatory affairs as well as all corporate & social responsibility. Toby also chairs the Steering Group of Flying Matters, the aviation industry’s environmental lobby group. Previously, Toby was employed in senior positions for a leading communications consultancy undertaking work across a range of diverse clients from IBM to bmi. Toby is a UK national.
Cor Vrieswijk, Operations Director
Cor (1958) joined easyJet in January 2007 from Transavia.com which is a Dutch-based airline where he was Chief Operations Officer for nine years together with 25 years’ experience in the airline industry. His responsibilities at Transavia.com included flight operations, cabin operations, engineering & maintenance and ground handling, together with relevant experience in marketing, human resources and IT. Cor's first degree was in engineering followed up by a Masters Degree in organisational sciences. Cor is a Dutch national.
Updated October 2008