Dixon has major heart surgery?
If the article below is true, G Dixon will not have his hands on the controls at qantas for at least a couple of months! Which begs the question, who's going to be running the show in the new year with all the industrial turmoil that is likely to occur this month?
January 01, 2008 12:00am
QANTAS boss Geoff Dixon is in St Vincent's Private Hospital after major surgery.
Sources told The Daily Telegraph the high-profile chief who joined Qantas 14 years ago had a heart bypass operation.
It was understood Mr Dixon may have been operated on as recently as last Friday, although another St Vincent's source said this may have been a reference to a different Sydney identity.
"You'd be amazed how many high profile people have been through emergency this week," the source said.
Qantas refused to comment, saying it did not comment on its executives' health.
"We have nothing to disclose," a spokesperson said.
Qantas shareholders might think otherwise, as bosses of Mr Dixon's calibre must have regular physicals and attract "key man insurance" to mitigate the risk of them falling ill or worse.
The sudden absence of an experienced and highly-regarded CEO may create doubt in investors' minds about a company's immediate financial viability.
And Mr Dixon is an exceptionally well-respected businessman.
In addition to his duties at Qantas he occupies a non-executive director's seat on the boards of James Packer's Consolidated Media and Crown.
He also sits on the board of the Business Council of Australia, which is one of Australia's most powerful lobby groups.
It is not known whether his surgery was a scheduled procedure or otherwise.
A noted fitness enthusiast, Mr Dixon takes almost daily exercise, including morning runs.
But 2007 has been particularly demanding for the one-time journalist from Wagga Wagga who turns 69 in 2008.
For the first half of the year he was embroiled, along with the Qantas board and senior management, in a bizarre stand-off with many of its shareholders who could not be convinced they should accept a foreign private equity group's $5.45 a share takeover offer for the Flying Kangaroo.
During the offer period, Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson was admitted to hospital with deep vein thrombosis.
Mr Dixon, who would have earned up to $70 million in the event of a successful takeover, kept a slightly lower profile but maintained a punishing work schedule, including seemingly incessant rounds of enterprise bargaining negotiations with Qantas employees