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Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has a very strange, and strained, relationship with easyjet, the company that he formed and then floated on the stock exchange. His criticism of the company’s management and investment policy has been very outspoken. Admittedly, he had the grace to resign from the board of directors before waging his war of words but it will nevertheless have been damaging to the company. 

The somewhat separate dispute over licensing terms for the easy brand reached the High Court and the relationship between founder and company must be at an all time low.

Against this background, Carolyn McCall joins as CEO and becomes one of the first women to take control of an airline. More pertinently, she is an industry outsider with no prior knowledge of running an airline.

Carolyn McCall is, undoubtedly a serious player. She has been with the Guardian Media Group for 24 years and has held a wide range of senior executive jobs. She certainly knows the media industry, but why has she been picked for the easyjet job? How well will she adapt to the problems of a new industry and, more interestingly, how will she cope with the interference of Sir Stellios?

Clearly, she has seen change, both evolution and revolution in the media industry and understands the importance of the digital age. These skills will be both important and transferrable to her new role.

There are a number of immediate problems facing her. Industrial relations will figure high on the list. Despite the failure of the BA strikes, we must expect some repetition across the industry as the pains of post-recession Britain continue to bite. Can she emulate Willie Walsh and play hardball with the unions? Whilst the Guardian saw some redundancies and a general reduction in employment benefits, it was more gradual and better understood by all parties than is likely to be the case at easyjet.

What fascinates me will be the relationship she creates with Sir Stellios.

He is an entrepreneur and the founder of the company. He holds a large shareholding and has, very correctly, elected to protect his personal interests as a shareholder and brand licensor from outside the company. But, and this is my big but, he is the kind of man that finds it difficult to truly disentangle himself from the company that he founded. His skills and abilities that enabled him to create and mould the business so successfully do not easily allow him to keep away. Properly handled, that tension can be good for easyjet. Badly, handled it can be a very damaging distraction.

Outgoing CEO, Andy Harrison, did a very good job of running the airline but was poor at handling the personality clashes with Sir Stellios.  I wait with interest to shall see how Carolyn McCall handles the dichotomy.

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