Flybe chairman Jim French steps down
AIRLINE Flybe’s shake-up of its management team has continued with the news that long-serving Jim French has stood down as non-executive chairman.
He will be replaced with immediate effect by Simon Laffin who is currently chairman of Assura Group and chairman of the audit committee at Quintain Estates & Development.
The airline, the largest in terms of volume at Manchester Airport, announced in early August that Saad Hammad, its new chief executive officer, had started a full review of the group’s operations.
In September that resulted in the departure of Andrew Strong, managing director of Flybe UK, Mike Rutter, managing director of Flybe Outsourcing Solutions and Mark Chown, director of corporate strategy.
Whether Mr French’s departure – announced to the London Stock Exchange this morning – is the culmination of the firm’s operational review remains to be seen.
Mr French said: “I joined Flybe in 1990 and have been privileged to lead the company as chief executive since 2001, adding the role of chairman in 2005.
“As part of an orderly transition in August this year we appointed Saad Hammad as chief executive officer and today we announce the appointment of Simon Laffin as our new non-executive chairman.
“We are fortunate to have attracted two high calibre and experienced individuals to lead the group in the future.”
He added: “We have an exciting time ahead and I look forward to working closely with Simon whose extensive board experience of diverse businesses will be of immense importance to me and the executive team.”
Mr Laffin is a former group finance and property director at Safeway and has served as a non-executive director at Aegis Group, pubco Mitchells & Butlers and Northern Rock (as part of the rescue team).
He said: “I am delighted to be joining the board and, in particular, look forward to working with Saad Hammad.
“Flybe has many challenges ahead, but I believe that under the new management team the group will be developed into a leading regional aviation operator.”
In September Flybe said it is already apparent that the future direction of the business will be “best advanced through a unified and lower cost operational approach”.
