Alan Joyce to leave Qantas immediately as PR disaster claims CEO scalp
Alan Joyce is stepping away from the Qantas CEO role today, bringing forward his retirement by two months to “help the company accelerate its renewal.”
CEO Designate Vanessa Hudson will assume the role of managing director and group CEO from tomorrow.
To mark this down as a PR disaster misses the point. It is a governance disgrace that was brought to light by some diligent journalism and a government regulator prepared to do its job. Neither the journalist nor the regulator were swayed by the promise of free drinks and special treatment in the Chairman’s Club. Public servants and politicians not accept bribes, even those as ostensibly overt as the Chairman’s Club. Companies with strong governance should not countenance doing business that way. So this cannot be written off as a PR disaster. Flawed human beings are to blame for this mess.
The term “PR disaster” is a common misnomer but is most inappropriate in relation to the Alan Joyce Qantas debacle.. It suggests the PR people are somehow at fault. A much more accurate term would be reputational disaster.
It’s been (self-inflicted) blunder after blunder for Qantas. What, exactly, have the QF board been doing this entire time?
See also – does this board look like the face of Australia to you? The company is entirely out of touch, and here we are.
https://www.qantas.com/au/en/qantas-group/acting-responsibly/our-leadership.html