Who is Stephen Hester, the finance man who will try to straighten the course of Easyjet
From December Stephen Hester will be the new president of EasyJet: the company is in difficulty due to the pandemic, but Hester has already worked in crisis contexts. Here is his resume and salary
EasyJet, the British low-cost airline, hasappointed Stephen Hester as new president: he will take up the post on 1 December, succeeding John Barton, but as early as September he will join the board of directors of the company as a non-executive director.
WHO IS STEPHEN HESTER
Stephen Hester, 60, is a well-known name in the world of finance: he worked with the financial services company Credit Suisse and managed (successfully) the British Land real estate company and, since 2014, the insurance group RSA Group.
Hester was also the head of the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Scottish bank that in 2008 – the year he took office – was in the midst of a crisis and at risk of bankruptcy. He held the role for five years, dealing with the restructuring of the bank, describing it as "brutal and difficult". He left in 2013 – by "decision of the board of directors", he said – with a settlement of at least £ 1.6 million.
JOHN BARTON'S COMMENT
Given the administrative skills demonstrated in crisis contexts, John Barton said Hester's "experience" and "strategic thinking" will be useful to easyJet "as he drives the recovery into the post-pandemic era".
HOW EASYJET GOES
The impact of the coronavirus crisis on the airline industry negatively impacted the businesses and accounts of companies such as easyJet, which reported gross losses of £ 318 million in the quarter ending June 30 last year.
To stem the decline in profits, easyJet has developed an expense control policy, bringing fixed costs to £ 34 million, below the expected 40 million, and stabilizing financial debt at around 2 billion.
In July, easyJet said it planned to operate at 60 percent of its pre-pandemic capacity in the July-September quarter. He had communicated an increase in air tickets sold for this summer thanks to the relaxation of travel restrictions from the United Kingdom to continental Europe, while specifying that he did not believe that air transport could return to the levels of 2019 before 2023.
WHAT HESTER SAID
Hester said he was "convinced" that easyJet could be the winner "in the European airline industry of the future, serving customers well and generating attractive shareholder value".
SALARY
Hester's salary will amount to 314,568 pounds per year (about 367,000 euros).
HOW DO EASYJET'S ACTIONS GO
Shares of easyJet, listed on the London Stock Exchange, rose as much as 3 percent this morning following the announcement of Hester's appointment. Last year, the company lost more than 40 percent of its value due to the coronavirus crisis.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/stephen-hester-presidente-easyjet-chi-e/ on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 12:44:52 +0000.