Willie Walsh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Willie Walsh (born in 1961) is an Irish airline executive. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of British Airways and is a former Chief Executive of Aer Lingus
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Walsh was born in Dublin, Ireland. He attended his local secondary school Ardscoil Rís. At the age of 17 he became a pilot at Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus, joining as a cadet in 1979. During his time as a pilot he acted as chief negotiator for the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) and is quoted during this time that "a reasonable man gets nowhere in negotiations". He also acquired a Master's degree in management and business administration from Trinity College, Dublin during his pilot years. 1
He later joined company management, with various positions including that of Chief Executive of then company subsidiary, Futura from 1998 to 2000.
[edit] Aer Lingus Chief Executive
In October 2001 he was appointed Chief Executive from his then position of Chief Operating Officer, succeeding Michael Foley who had resigned following a harassment complaint. The carrier was in financial difficulty in the wake of the market downturn following the events of September 11, 2001, losing £2million (Irish pounds) per day. Walsh took action by eliminating 2,000 staff positions, reducing the number of aircraft types and selling non-core assets, including an art collection at the company headquarters. He reconfigured Aer Lingus as a low cost airline in imitation of Ryanair, and began withdrawing from various services like short-haul Business Class and cargo services and heavily restricting the airline's frequent flyer programme, TAB.
The company operating profits rebounded but the cost of the write-offs and redundancies meant that net profitability was not as quick to recover. Not all of Walsh's reforms were successful, such as the outsourcing of aircraft cleaning. The contracting had not been agreed with Aer Lingus unions which led to large payments to the private contractor while Aer Lingus employees did the cleaning work. A three day lockout occurred in 2002 during the peak of the cutbacks.
The management team suggested to the principal shareholder, the Irish Government, a float of Aer Lingus on the stock market. Stock floats are often rewarding to top management and this was opposed by the unions who feared a privatised Aer Lingus would impose even tougher working conditions. The Government eventually turned down the float and this led to Walsh and other management executives resigning from the company in January 2005.
The Irish prime minister, Bertie Ahern, subsequently described Walsh's offer of an MBO as "[a time] when management wanted to steal the assets for themselves through a management buy out, shafting staff interests." Dáil record, 17 May 2006.
Dermot Mannion, formerly of Emirates, succeeded Walsh as Aer Lingus Chief Executive.
[edit] British Airways Chief Executive
The British Airways board were seeking a successor to Chief Executive Rod Eddington who had announced plans to return to his native Australia at the end of his contract. Walsh was hired in May 2005 at the age of 43 with a six month shadowing period to get to know the business before the departure of Eddington on October 1, 2005.
[edit] Professional memberships and company directorships
Walsh's British Airways biography lists him as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a director of Fyffes Plc. He is also a member of the International Air Transport Association Board of Governors.
