Geoff Dixon was a great leader
There are many components which make a great leader, and Geoff Dixon exhibited very few of them despite his commercial success.
Dixon inherited a strong company. On top of that, he managed not to do anything to screw it up despite his best efforts (APA bid, for example, which most likely would have caused Qantas to now be in receivership while allowing Dixon enough money to buy a penthouse, yacht, and private plane in Monaco).
Did he steer Qantas through the turbulent times? Or was Qantas lucky enough to be in a strong enough position before those times to survive, and he just took the usual austerity measures one would expect of a company surviving in a tough economic situation?
I can find few endearing qualities in his leadership at all.