From the company's intranet:
At 10am today we announced that Andrew Harrison will be replacing Ray Webster as Chief Executive of easyJet.
Andrew brings a wealth of experience from consumer-facing businesses and will join us full-time on the 1st of December. In the intervening three months, he will take time to understand our business. You'll see him at airports, on the aircraft (ours and our competitors!), around easyLand, at the bases - pretty much everywhere.
Andrew, 48, was previously the Chief Executive of RAC plc (which provides motoring products and services in the UK, France and Ireland) prior to its acquisition by Aviva plc earlier this year.
Andrew joined Lex Service plc in 1996 as Chief Executive and led its transformation from a vehicle distribution company into RAC plc, a strongly-branded, consumer-facing services company with 6.5 million members. RAC plc delivered strong growth in a variety of consumer services, which included BSM, financial and legal services, as well as good expansion in business services, winning large contracts. The successful integration of Lex and RAC resulted in a strong rise in profits and a tripling of the share price during Andrew's tenure as Chief Executive.
Since 2000 Andrew has been a Non-Executive Director at Emap, where he chairs the Audit Committee. Prior to Lex Service, Andrew was an Executive Director of Courtaulds Textiles plc since 1990.
Commenting Sir Colin Chandler, Chairman of easyJet, says:
"I am very pleased that Andrew has agreed to join easyJet. This is the successful conclusion of a rigorous search process conducted by a professional search company which assessed candidates across a wide range of consumer-facing industries.
"We had a number of criteria that our new CEO had to meet; in particular, he or she needed to have had senior management experience in a large and well recognised consumer-facing plc. In addition, Andrew has delivered strong top and bottom line growth, improved cash generation, introduced cost efficiencies and inspired employees in a service industry."
Andrew says:
"easyJet has an exciting future ahead, continuing to deliver rapid growth and further building upon its strong position in the rapidly expanding European low-cost airline market. I look forward to leading the easyJet team to make this happen.
"I believe business is about people and easyJet is very much a people organisation. I come from a people-intensive service business where success has been built around the quality and commitment of our people - and I believe this philosophy will fit well at easyJet."
Andrew is married and has three children (aged 18, 15 and 10). He lives in St Albans (about 20 miles from Luton) and lists family, flying (he just achieved his Private Pilot's Licence), skiing and football as his main interests outside of work.