Rod Eddington Appointed CEO
British Airways PLC
25 April 2000
ROD EDDINGTON APPOINTED CHIEF EXECUTIVE
British Airways today announced the appointment of
Rod Eddington as its new Chief Executive. Mr
Eddington joins the company from the position of
Executive Chairman at Ansett Holdings and Deputy
Chairman of News Limited.
Mr Eddington is one of the most experienced and
recognised leaders in the world airline industry
having worked for Cathay Pacific for 18 years and
becoming Managing Director in 1992, before joining
News Corporation and heading up Ansett in 1997. Mr
Eddington's drive in leading Ansett's business
recovery programme has helped put the airline on a
profitable footing, delivering a quality service to
customers and preparing for its upcoming integration
with Air New Zealand.
The Chairman of British Airways, Lord Marshall, will
hand over the role of Chief Executive to Mr Eddington
on May 1st.
Mr Eddington said: 'I feel privileged to be given the
opportunity to lead this great company. British
Airways has a fine, professional workforce with a
strong focus on customer service and an outstanding
record in setting standards in the airline industry.
This is a global business and an increasingly
competitive one and we have to provide the right
products and services in order to maintain and extend
our competitive advantage.
'Our ability to meet this challenge depends on our
people delivering the service that customers want. It
is my job to empower the organisation to be able to
do that. People are the lifeblood of any airline and
it is the people of British Airways, both as
individuals and as a team, who will deliver its
future success. I look forward to meeting as many as
possible over the coming weeks and months and
listening to what they have to tell me about how we
can further improve our products and service. I also
look forward to meeting our customers, investors and
other key stakeholders in the business.'
Lord Marshall, British Airways Chairman, said: 'I am
delighted to be announcing the appointment of Rod Eddington
today. He has a well-deserved reputation in the airline
industry for his leadership, people and management skills.
To run British Airways, the Board looked for someone with
the necessary people skills, someone who knew how to run a
large organisation with millions of customers and who had
the experience of working in different countries with
different cultures. Rod has these qualities. With his
complete commitment to staff and customer service, I have
no doubt that he is the right man to carry the airline
forward, ensuring that British Airways delivers the level
of service that our customers expect.'
Notes to editors:
1. Born 1950 in Perth, Western Australia, Rod Eddington
was educated at the University of Western Australia and
Oxford University (the 1974 Rhodes Scholar from Western
Australia). He completed a D Phil in the Department of
Engineering Science at Oxford and taught as research
lecturer at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1978/79.
Mr Eddington joined Swires in 1979 and worked with Cathay
Pacific Airways in Hong Kong, Korea and Japan, in a
variety of roles, before being appointed Managing
Director in early 1992. News Limited appointed Mr
Eddington as Executive Chairman of Ansett in January
1997.
Mr Eddington enjoys cricket, Australian rules football,
rugby and bridge.
2. Mr Eddington will continue to sit on the board of News
Corporation, in a non-executive capacity.
3. British Airways is a 25 per cent shareholder in
Qantas. However, Mr Eddington will not be joining the
board of Qantas before next year, in order to avoid
confidentiality issues with Ansett.
4. Air New Zealand Managing Director Jim McCrea thanked
Rod Eddington for his work at
Ansett over the last three years and wished him well in
his new position at British Airways. Mr McCrea said: 'I
have worked closely with Rod over the last few years and
he has demonstrated visionary leadership. Rod's energy
and drive in leading the airline's business recovery
programme has seen Ansett Australia make enormous gains
in the last two years. He has been very supportive of Air
New Zealand's acquisition of the rest of Ansett. I want
to thank him for his tremendous contribution and wish him
well in his new job.'
Photographs are available on www.newscast.co.uk (UK and
overseas).
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