Friday Diary: David Parkin on Marketing Leeds, and a bravura show by the Ryanair boss

THE word on the street is that the panel tasked with appointing the new Marketing Leeds chief executive have drawn a blank following two stages of interviews.

It now seems unlikely that those currently in roles at Marketing Leeds and Financial Leeds will get the job selling the city to the world and no sparkling external candidates have emerged with the right credentials.

So what now? Well, the panel may have to up the salary level – it was thought the salary offered was around £100,000 a year – and perhaps the right calibre individuals may emerge.

What price Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Gary Verity for the role? Public funding for his tourist body runs out next year and he may fancy the job of marketing his home city globally.

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IF there is a chief executive of a big company out there with more charisma than Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary then I would like to meet him or her.

O’Leary, who sounds like he has swallowed the Blarney Stone, was on fine form when he breezed into Yorkshire this week to speak to a Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce lunch packed with 300 people.

I can’t directly quote his speech because children may be reading this and also it was under so-called Chatham House rules so it was off the record.

But he swore more than somewhat, was what can only be described as borderline sexist and slagged off everyone from Irish and British politicans, Manchester United (he’s a Man City fan) and Manchester Airport.

And the audience loved him, particularly the female members, who were charmed by his flamboyant, straight-talking style.

As former Bradford City, Leeds United and Barnsley footballer John Hendrie, now a sports consultant with Blacks Solicitors, said to me afterwards: ” How did he get away with that? If I had got up there, sworn like that and been sexist, they’d have booed me off!”

I, like most of the audience, warmed to the airline tycoon clad in trainers, faded jeans, baggy shirt topped off with sunglasses perched on his head.

His charisma is such that by the end of his speech he had me blaming the UK government for the reason Ryanair charges me an arm and a leg to put a bag in the hold of one of its planes.

And to top it off, I found myself nodding along to his assertion that Leeds Bradford International Airport is a great place to fly from rather than a randomly put-together collection of buildings on an obscure hill where you can’t get a drinkable cup of coffee.

Genius.

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AFTER some eventful times running Yorkshire cricket, self-confessed football fan Stuart Regan must have been looking forward to his move to head Scottish football.

But less than a season into the new role as the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association and former Yorkshire County Cricket Club CEO Regan has found himself in the midst of the maelstrom that is currently soccer north of the border.

Nothing at Headingley can have prepared Regan for the role he now occupies, where some of the issues he is currently dealing with include mail bombs to football managers, growing sectarian hatred in the stands and this week a supporter invading the pitch to assault Celtic manager Neil Lennon.

I know he loves football, but I wonder whether Stuart ever misses the cucumber sandwiches and coping with the smattering of supporters at mid-week county championship matches?