New Aer Lingus CEO

Calina

Stephen Kavanagh.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/stephen-kavanagh-is-new-aer-lingus-chief-executive-1.2105593

It will be interesting to see what happens next.

L1011

I have a slight suspicion this is a holding position in the knowledge that there may not be as much autonomy for the CEO shortly enough - appointing an external candidate, potentially paying off existing employers etc to let them leave for a year's work wouldn't be worth it.

PukkaStukka

L1011 wrote: »

I have a slight suspicion this is a holding position in the knowledge that there may not be as much autonomy for the CEO shortly enough - appointing an external candidate, potentially paying off existing employers etc to let them leave for a year's work wouldn't be worth it.

Was thinking the same myself. If the IAG bid succeeds then the new guy's stint could be the shortest in Irish corporate history. He could well be a cartaker, and if not, all the best to him!

basill

Yes I agree. The board has shown their hand and decided that the 23m on offer by way of the long term incentive plan plus whatever sweeteners get thrown in by the acquirer are just to much to turn away. In the meantime Barrington has another business to run so they need someone to do the day to day stuff until AL is sold whenever that may be.

Tenger

Calina wrote: »

....
It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Feck all with this guy in charge. He is not a mover and a shaker. He is a "sure it's good enough" type of guy.

I have listened to the last 2-3 FY results presentations....he could do with learning some public speaking tips.

Van.Bosch

PukkaStukka wrote: »

Was thinking the same myself. If the IAG bid succeeds then the new guy's stint could be the shortest in Irish corporate history. He could well be a cartaker, and if not, all the best to him!

Not so sure, the Business is planned to be run as a standalone business, granted IAG will have a say but they did leave the mgt team in place largely on their only other comparable deal - Vueling.

keith16

Tenger wrote: »

I have listened to the last 2-3 FY results presentations....he could do with learning some public speaking tips.

Are they available online?

Tenger

keith16 wrote: »

Are they available online?

Podcasts were avail closer to the time. Looking at EI.com......only PDF's of the results there now:
http://corporate.aerlingus.com/investorrelations/
http://corporate.aerlingus.com/investorrelations/resultspresentations/

EI FY2014 results should be out the end of the month, (28th?) they will have a live broadcast then. Thats how I listened to the last few, grabbed the podcast 2-3 days later.

basill

He was the only deal in town. No credible CEO in the world would want to go near AL when the board has signaled its intention of selling. His job is merely to keep the seat warm and take care of administrative tasks freeing up Barrington to go back to his leasing business. IAG may well put in their own man resulting in SK having the unenviable reputation of being the shortest CEO in the company history.

Calina

basill wrote: »

Yes I agree. The board has shown their hand and decided that the 23m on offer by way of the long term incentive plan plus whatever sweeteners get thrown in by the acquirer are just to much to turn away. In the meantime Barrington has another business to run so they need someone to do the day to day stuff until AL is sold whenever that may be.

Barrington is chairman of the board. He was never going to be the day to day manager.

It might also be worth considering the possibility that the commercial interests of the company might be best served by the merger and not assume the only motivation for supporting it is personal gain. In my view, when I read some of the drivel that the politicians are coming out, I think the company needs to be protected from political interference.

basill wrote: »

He was the only deal in town. No credible CEO in the world would want to go near AL when the board has signaled its intention of selling. His job is merely to keep the seat warm and take care of administrative tasks freeing up Barrington to go back to his leasing business. IAG may well put in their own man resulting in SK having the unenviable reputation of being the shortest CEO in the company history.

I am not sure I'd agree with you there necessarily on a couple of grounds. Stephen Kavanagh is not unfamiliar with Willie Walsh, and while I am open to correction, AFAIK, Michael Foley's tenure as CEO of Aer Lingus was just 9 months. I'd be surprised if he were to be replaced in under that period.

If your interest is in continued growth, stability matters quite a bit.

You keep on talking about freeing Barrington up to go back to his other business. It seems to me you don't really understand the nature of Barrington's role in Aer Lingus.

Tenger

basill wrote: »

He was the only deal in town. No credible CEO in the world would want to go near AL when the board has signaled its intention of selling. .....IAG may well put in their own man resulting in SK having the unenviable reputation of being the shortest CEO in the company history.

I would be of this view. While SK was in the shortlist any external candidate would be uneasy taking the post at this point. And EI had planned to announce the name in "The New Year"....at this stage they had to make an announcement rather than letting the IAG potential offer influence their own operation. Barrington as acting -CEO was't going to be doign that for too long. EI looked rudderless in 2008 when the then CoB (John Sharman) was acting CEO for over 6 months.


In regards to "IAG putting in their own man".....I think they have just done so. SK is not a leader, he is a lieutenant. And Willie knows him from 10-12 years ago.

Calina wrote: »

...... Michael Foley's tenure as CEO of Aer Lingus was just 9 months.....

If my memory serves me well..... Micheal Foley came in with a plan not wholly unlike the Greenfield plan (Scale back all admin/office functions and focus them on supporting frontline workers who interact with customers while slashing the numbers of middle mgmt)
He was set up and ousted by the EI mgmt at the time. He left under an accusation of inappropriate conduct towards 2 female staffer's. But funnily enough Heineken US took him in soon after....US companies wouldn't normally touch an exec with that hanging around him... Coincidentally enough one of the female staffers at the time was involved with another senior mngr who was in line to be booted out. Odd that. The other was a known mgmt lackey. No staff at the time believe it was anything but a set-up
(I happened to work there at the time....point of fact Willie mostly implemented Foley's plan and went further towards the LCC style operation)

Locker10a

Tenger wrote: »

I would be of this view. While SK was in the shortlist any external candidate would be uneasy taking the post at this point. And EI had planned to announce the name in "The New Year"....at this stage they had to make an announcement rather than letting the IAG potential offer influence their own operation. Barrington as acting -CEO was't going to be doign that for too long. EI looked rudderless in 2008 when the then CoB (John Sharman) was acting CEO for over 6 months.


In regards to "IAG putting in their own man".....I think they have just done so. SK is not a leader, he is a lieutenant. And Willie knows him from 10-12 years ago.



If my memory serves me well..... Micheal Foley came in with a plan not wholly unlike the Greenfield plan (Scale back all admin/office functions and focus them on supporting frontline workers who interact with customers while slashing the numbers of middle mgmt)
He was set up and ousted by the EI mgmt at the time. He left under an accusation of inappropriate conduct towards 2 female staffer's. But funnily enough Heineken US took him in soon after....US companies wouldn't normally touch an exec with that hanging around him... Coincidentally enough one of the female staffers at the time was involved with another senior mngr who was in line to be booted out. Odd that. The other was a known mgmt lackey. No staff at the time believe it was anything but a set-up
(I happened to work there at the time....point of fact Willie mostly implemented Foley's plan and went further towards the LCC style operation)

Interesting ! thanks for the insight ! Oh to be a fly on the wall !!!

Preset No.3

Maybe I'm just cynical but I look at this appointment and the deal to sell is already done but the government are just play acting so they look like they put up a bit of a fight!

basill

Only question seems to be before or after the election. Sadly it says more about politicians than in does about the merits of the deal on offer.

Tenger

basill wrote: »

Only question seems to be before or after the election. Sadly it says more about politicians than in does about the merits of the deal on offer.

Having watched the Oireachtas discussion earlier I am shocked and appalled at the idiocy of the members on the Transport Committee. One senator had to be told what codeshare's were, another was looking for T/A expansion from SNN and ORK. Jesus, could they not at least read up a bit.

Obviously I am interesting in the industry and thus enraged at 'outsiders'. But do these representatives not have assistants to give them some briefing info...or at the very least read a.net or boards.ie? This beggars belief, and not just for this situation but for the thoughts that these numpties are in charge of our health and education services.

TD Patrick O'Donovan from Limerick "I presume that you watched the presentation from the IAG chairman last week" Did you actually have to say that?
He seems to want IAG to offer a 15 yr agreement. He wants internal info about board vote of a commercial company?
Do you not realise that a 5 year commitment is more than you have now? Do you know that EI is not a state company?
Do you not realise that SNN and ORK are not entitled to air travel unless the customers from there actually use the route network?

I may sound arrogant but give me a 2-3 hour with any of these politicians I could have least given them a bit of knowledge beforehand so that they can actually ask the hard questions in this forum. To my mind some of them asked stupid questions which wasted time in the forum.

LXFlyer

Welcome to the world of Oireachtas committee meetings Tenger.

Having followed them over the years it is quite clear that in the case of transport, 99% of the time they have not got a bull's notion about the topic, and have very clear preconceptions based on bar stool talk.

It's usually just an opportunity for politicians to showboat.

Having said that every so often you do get the odd nugget of information.

Irish Steve

lxflyer wrote: »

Welcome to the world of Oireachtas committee meetings Tenger.

Having followed them over the years it is quite clear that in the case of transport, 99% of the time they have not got a bull's notion about the topic, and have very clear preconceptions based on bar stool talk.

It's usually just an opportunity for politicians to showboat.

Having said that every so often you do get the odd nugget of information.

FYP.

Life would be so much easier if we could actually get some politicians with at least a little bit of savvy. They for sure should not be involved in this discussion in the way that they are, given the levels of ignorance and prejudice they are displaying.

Tenger

I shouldn't really be surprised because many years ago I had then Minister Dicke Roche on a flight. This was when EI still had 'Premier' on shorthaul.

He was in a C seat (mostly empty cabin) with 2 assistants, 1 seated across from him in D and another behind in D. I was 2 rows behind in the C seat.
I couldn't hear much of the discussion but one remark from the Minister for the Environment sticks in my head over decade later. Keep in mind that he wasn't new to the position at this point.

"How does the incinerator work?"

flanzer

Tenger wrote: »

I shouldn't really be surprised because many years ago I had then Minister Dicke Roche on a flight. This was when EI still had 'Premier' on shorthaul.

He was in a C seat (mostly empty cabin) with 2 assistants, 1 seated across from him in D and another behind in D. I was 2 rows behind in the C seat.
I couldn't hear much of the discussion but one remark from the Minister for the Environment sticks in my head over decade later. Keep in mind that he wasn't new to the position at this point.

"How does the incinerator work?"

Ha!

I keep on saying it, but ministers are only poster boys for the department they look after. All the decisions are ultimately made by the Secretary Generals/Senior Civil Servants. If things go tits up, the axes falls on the Ministers, not the people on charge of the departments. Sure you see them everyday in Europe, gutless wonders the lot of them. The same applies when they're back here

IRLConor

Tenger wrote: »

I may sound arrogant but give me a 2-3 hour with any of these politicians I could have least given them a bit of knowledge beforehand so that they can actually ask the hard questions in this forum. To my mind some of them asked stupid questions which wasted time in the forum.

FWIW, a lot of politicians & Dail committees are open to submissions from the public. If you'd like them to know more about the topic at hand you should e-mail them and offer to share your knowledge.

In other words, they're not going to learn unless someone teaches them!

Calina

IRLConor wrote: »

FWIW, a lot of politicians & Dail committees are open to submissions from the public. If you'd like them to know more about the topic at hand you should e-mail them and offer to share your knowledge.

In other words, they're not going to learn unless someone teaches them!

I'd write rather than email tbh.

IRLConor

Calina wrote: »

I'd write rather than email tbh.

Yeah, if you want to be sure. Plenty of them do pay attention to their e-mail nowadays though, much more than in the past.