Leaders
Hi Genghis et al,
I do believe that you can successfully head up a railway company without having been a train driver or be a CEO of a bank without having been a bank clerk. May I remind you of Sir John Harvey-Jones - he did a TV series called Troubleshooter. He joined ICI as a management trainee and rose to lead the company, the only non-chemist to do so. In 5 years at the top he doubled ICI's share price and took it from a loss maker to a billion pound profit. His Wikipedia profile hardly does him justice.
The CAA has had plenty of Chief Executives who haven't been pilots, what is required is someone of the right calibre. As with ICI above, perhaps all those chemists who tried to run the company were trying to play with a chemistry set rather than run a company. There's only one thing worse than having a specialist try and run a company and that's put an accountant in charge.
I think what the CAA needs is someone with clarity of vision and purpose and the charisma and ability to make effective changes. I don't know what the present incumbent is being paid, but I wouldn't have thought you'd get anyone of the right calibre for much less than £750k plus benefits PA.
TOO