Michael O’Leary proves he’s still good for laughs
RYANAIR has the best shareholder meetings. Despite Michael O’Leary’s decision to “step out of the public spotlight”, he’s still good for quips when he gets in front of a crowd. Yesterday’s meeting in Dublin was no different.
Tesco was first to get it in the goolies. When speaking about chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs, O’Leary referred to him as having come from Moneysupermarket, adding: “Kenny would prefer if we didn’t mention that he used to work for Tesco.”
Next up, while defending his pay packet, he used Willie Walsh as a human shield, saying he’s well remunerated but paid “significantly less than another famous Irishman”.
But O’Leary’s biggest challenge was yet to come – the accusation that a shareholder’s wife contracted viral pneumonia on a Ryanair flight. “I am sorry your wife got viral pneumonia, but I can assure you she didn’t get it on our aircraft,” he said. He’s so poite these days.
And anyone offended by the nuclear yellow (un)soft furnishings in Ryanair’s planes will be delighted to hear that colour is out. We can expect “soft shades of grey” instead. Not 50 shades, we hope.
■ EVER SINCE Nemat Shafik, Minouche to her friends and, well, now you and I, was announced as a new member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, the City has been trying to work out whether she’s a hawk or a dove. Minouche has remained pretty tight beaked about the topic, until now. She’s an owl. “I asked my children this question and they said, ‘Mummy, you should say you’re an owl’,” she told The Yorkshire Post. “Look at the data, try and be wise.” No doubt she’ll ruffle some feathers with that label.
■ IT WOULD appear one royal baby was enough for royal press secretary Ed Perkins, as the comms whizz has decided to leave the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after seven years in senior communications roles in the royal household. Having carried the official announcement of Prince George’s birth by hand to be displayed on the gates of Buckingham Palace in front of the world’s adoring media, where can he go next to top a career high like that? To former Tony Blair adviser Tim Allan’s clutch, that’s where. He joins PR firm Portland in October as a senior adviser, working across the company’s UK and International clients. “Very few people have managed communications for such truly global figures as the Royal Family,” gushed Allan. How ever will he manage without all those cucumber sandwiches?