Sir David Michels
(Non Executive Interim Chairman)
David (1946) was appointed to the Board on 6 March 2006. He is currently the deputy chairman of Marks and Spencer plc and is also non-executive director of Capital and Strategic Hotels and Resorts Inc and Jumeirah Hotels. David has held a number of senior management and plc board positions in the leisure industry. He spent 15 years with Grand Metropolitan mainly in sales and marketing, which culminated in a Board position as worldwide marketing director. In 1989, he became deputy chairman of Hilton UK and executive vice-president, Hilton International. He joined Stakis in 1991 as chief executive and became group chief executive of the Hilton Group (formerly Ladbroke Group) in June 2000, a position he held until 2006. He is the current President of the British Hospitality Association and was knighted in June 2006 for services to the hospitality industry.
Sir Michael Rake
(Non Executive Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director)
Michael (1948) was appointed Deputy Chairman on 1 June 2009. He is Chairman of BT Group plc, The UK Commission for Employment and Skills, as well as a director of Barclays PLC, McGraw Hill Inc and the Financial Reporting Council. He is also chairman of the private equity oversight group the Guidelines Monitoring Committee. He is a member of the National Security Forum.
From May 2002 to September 2007 Sir Michael Rake was Chairman of KPMG International. Prior to his appointment as Chairman of KPMG International he was Chairman of KPMG in Europe and Senior Partner of KPMG in the UK.
He joined KPMG in 1974 and worked in Continental Europe before transferring to the Middle East to run the practice for three years in 1986. He transferred to London in 1989, became a member of the UK Board in 1991, had a number of leadership roles in the UK before being elected UK Senior Partner in 1998.
Mike is also a Vice President of the RNIB, a member of the Board of the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue, a member of the CBI International Advisory Board, the DTI’s US/UK Regulatory Taskforce, the Advisory Council for Business for New Europe, an Association Member of BUPA, The School of Oriental and African Studies Advisory Board, Senior Adviser for Chatham House and the Global Advisory Board of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation. Mike was Chairman of Business in the Community from 2004-2007 and a member of the board of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum from 1998 to 2007.
Mike is also a Governor of Wellington College and a board member of Guards Polo Club.
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.
David Bennett
(Independent non-executive director)
David (1962) was appointed to the Board on 1 October 2005. He is currently an executive director of Abbey. Prior to that, David was group chief executive of Alliance & Leicester plc having previously served as group finance director. David held a number of senior management positions at Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society and Lloyds TSB. He was also an executive director of the National Bank of New Zealand Limited and is a member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
Sven Boinet
(Independent non-executive director)
Sven (1953) was appointed to the Board of easyJet in March 2008. He 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.
John Browett
(Independent non-executive director)
John Browett (1963) joined easyJet in September 2007. He is currently chief executive officer of DSG International plc, a position he has held since December 2007. Prior to joining DSG International, John was the operations development director of Tesco plc. He joined Tesco as group strategy director in 1998 and held a number of executive director positions in the company including running Tesco.com from 2000 to 2004, where he was responsible for formulating and delivering its strategy from launch to profitability. A graduate of Cambridge University and Wharton Business School, John, was at the Boston Consulting Group between 1993 and 1998.
Professor Rigas Doganis
(Independent non-executive director)
Rigas (1939) was appointed to the Board on 1 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 non-executive director of GMR Hyderabad International Airport, India. He is a former Chairman/CEO of Olympic Airways and was formerly a non-executive director of South African Airways. Rigas is also a visiting Professor at Cranfield University and the author of books on aviation economics and management.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou
(Non-executive director)
Stelios (1967) founded easyJet in 1995. He was easyJet’s non-executive chairman until 26 November 2002 and was re-appointed to the Board on 16 May 2005. A graduate of the London School of Economics and City University Business School, Stelios founded his first business Stelmar Tankers in 1992, a shipping company which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001 and was sold in 2005 to OSG shipping group. Since 1999, he has set up c. 16 other “easy” branded ventures, which are managed and capitalised separately from easyJet and an up-to-date list of them can be found on www.easy.com. Stelios is currently mostly focusing on the management of easyGroup, the private investment vehicle for his trust, called the Stelios Trust. The easyGroup owns the easy brand and licenses it to the various easy branded ventures including easyJet and is also a major shareholder in easyJet plc. He was knighted in November 2006 for services to entrepreneurship.
Keith Hammil
(Independent non-executive director)
Keith (1952) was appointed to the Board on 1 March 2009. He is a UK national and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, is chairman of Travelodge and was chairman of Go, prior to its acquisition by easyJet in 2002. He has considerable experience as a director of listed companies, is currently the chairman of Tullett Prebon and Alterian and was chairman of Luminar and Moss Bros. He is also a director of Collins Stewart plc and has previously been a director of Electrocomponents Plc, Cadmus Communications Corp and Colllins Stewart Tullett PLC.
Bob Rothenberg
(Non Executive Director)
Bob 59, is senior partner in the London-based accountancy firm of Blick Rothenberg. Bob is a Governor of Highgate School and a Trustee of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment. He was made an MBE in the 2007 New Year’s Honours List for services to business and to the community in London.