EASYJET tycoon Stelios Haji-Ioannou is to step down as chairman of the no-frills airline he set up in 1995, he announced in the UK yesterday.
The 35-year old Greek-born son of Cypriot parents, Haji-Ioannou said he would resign as easyJet chairman next year but would retain a significant stake in the Luton-based airline “for a very long time”.
Haji-Ioannou, who regularly appears on Britain’s ‘Rich List’, said his strengths lay in being a “serial entrepreneur” rather than the chairman of a public company.
“Starting a company requires a very different skills set to those needed to chair a major Plc and I consider my strengths are in the former,” he said.
“I am a serial entrepreneur. The history of the city is littered with entrepreneurs who hold on to their creations for too long, failing to recognise the changing needs of the company, its business and its shareholders.”
Haji-Ioannou also said that his decision was partly to do with the fact that
institutional investors had expressed concern about his role as chairman.
He will be replaced by Sir Colin Chandler, currently chairman of Rolls Royce subsidiary Vickers Defence Systems, and deputy chairman of the engineering group Smiths.
Sir Colin will join easyJet as deputy chairman and will take over at next year’s annual general meeting.
Haji-Ioannou said he was delighted that Sir Colin was joining the board. “It’s a sign of maturity in a young company to have a chairman who is independent from the controlling shareholders,” he said.
Haji-Ioannou set up easyJet in 1995 after borrowing £5 million from his father. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2000. It was worth £860 million when it floated, and had given Haji-Ioannou a personal fortune of £280 million.
Since the success of easyJet, Haji-Ioannou has started up a chain of Internet cafés in London and New York, and a car rental company, all under the ‘easy’ brand.
He also started the shipping company Stelmar under the Cyprus flag and planned to list the company on the Cyprus Stock Exchange, but pulled out in disgust when the government delayed on establishing criteria for the listing of shipping firms. Stelmar was last year listed on the New York Stock Exchange and was one of the few companies to make a profit last year, despite the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US. Haji-Ioannou was also awarded recognition for his company from renowned shipping publication Lloyds List for his contribution to the industry.
Haji-Ioannou often travels on his own planes and introduces himself to passengers. He also reportedly makes surprise night-time visits to mechanics at Luton when he is not on the go, 15 hours a day, travelling between Luton, London, Monaco and Athens.
“When British Airways launched its low-cost competitor GO, Haji-Ioannou booked himself and some employees all dressed in their orange uniforms on to the inaugural flight,” the Press Association said.
Haji-Ioannou said he would be returning to the public eye with more new projects in the future.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
