Originally Posted by
RexBanner
The laughable thing is that some clueless
PR person obviously said "you know what will look good, Alex? Wear a high vis vest in your video, it'll show that you're mucking in and getting your hands dirty". That clown is so wet behind the ears and clueless he's gone along with it. Worse still it could have even been his idea to start with. As someone else put it, being the CEO of Poundland does not qualify you for the top job at Harrods. Nowhere was this more aptly demonstrated than by Cruz. It's not as if he even made a success of Vueling! The place was a shambles when he left, they almost lost their AOC and he's still facing fraud charges. It beggars belief that he's deemed suitable by Walsh.
One thing to bear in mind is that IAG is a Spanish company whose chairman (Antonio Vazquez Romero) is Spanish . Willie Walsh reports to Romero and Walsh has no fewer than seven Spaniards reporting to him, namely:
- Enrique Dupuy de Lome, Chief Financial Officer
- Alex Cruz, Chairman and CEO BA
- Luis Gallego Martin, CEO Iberia
- Jose Antonio Barrionuevo Urgel, CFO Iberia
- Javier Sanchez-Prieto, CEO Vueling
- Jorge Saco Inglesias, CFO Vueling
- Ignacio de Torres Zabala, Director of Global Services
So, there may well have been pressure to appoint a Spaniard (Cruz) in November 2015 to run BA despite Vueling's appalling customer satisfaction track record.