Whitbread Set to Get New CEO
Abi BrayIt now appears that the current CEO of easyJet is set to leave the airline after five years and head over to Whitbread, which is the company behind Premier Inn and Costa Coffee. The hotel and restaurant group’s current CEO, Alan Parker, will retire on November 25th on his 64th birthday. Ever since 2004, Parker has overseen Whitbread’s shift from a leisure group of 10 separate divisions to a focused hotel and restaurant business.
Before becoming the CEO of easyJet, Andy Harrison was the CEO of RAC for nine years. He announced his decision to quite the airline in December last year and is set to leave at the end of June. Harrison’s decision to leave easyJet came in the middle of a very long running dispute between some directors and the airline’s founder and major shareholder Sir Stelios Haji Ioannou. Many say that Mr Harrison will be able to bring a lot of good things to Whitbread.
The dispute has been over the strategic development of easyJet, which is Europe’s second largest low cost carrier. A lot of problems came up regarding the number of new planes that should be bought. Sir Stelios, whose company and family own 38 percent of easyJet’s shares, wanted the airline to cut its orders of new planes.
However, despite these disputes, easyJet did go on to order more planes. The carrier’s fleet will grow by 212 to 2012. Harrison was given a retention agreement to ensure his presence as chief executive of the airline until the first quarter of 2010.
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Filed under Business & Finance, Holiday News, Travel News, UK News