About

The airline industry is one which appears to have been particularly negatively affected by anti-Covid measures. What were some of the first things you did to safeguard the business?

There is no doubt that the aviation sector has been sorely tested and that 2020 was a year like no other. However, we did manage to safeguard the company, and we did this, first and foremost, by recognising the magnitude of the challenge at an early stage.

We then followed a strategic solution that was both simple and well designed to deliver three things: speed, certainty and simplicity. Step one was to retain top-notch external advisory teams covering legal, financial and banking expertise to support management and the in-house legal function while immediately launching decisive self-help remedies at the same time. The senior management team led from the front with pay cuts, and then the vast majority of the company followed by taking eight weeks of unpaid leave which was later replaced by furlough. Our cargo team, which pre-Covid was already a major player in the pharma and medical transportation sector, spooled up, and during 2020 operated more than 4,000 cargo-only flights that brought in many thousands of tons of PPE and test kits, generating revenue in the process.

The next step was to look across the organisation to see where we could strip out costs and streamline the organisation – we tried to look at the company as if it were a start-up. Some of the more major cuts include closing our base at Gatwick, retiring our Boeing 747 and Airbus A340-600 aircraft, and consolidating our operations to Heathrow and Manchester. We also saw a significant drop in headcount by about 50%. This occurred for a variety of reasons, including employees leaving voluntarily, natural attrition and redundancies, and was one element of the general objective of overall success going forward. Finally, retaining a strong management team meant we were capable of devising a restructuring plan, culminating in the £1.2bn we raised in our solvent recapitalisation under the 26a process. All of this happened only because we were supported by our stakeholders, who took the hit alongside all of us – staff, shareholders, creditors, lessors and our banks.

You recently took on company secretarial duties on top of your responsibilities as GC. How has it affected your day-to-day role?

I assumed the role of Virgin Atlantic group company secretary in September 2020 and this means that I now attend all board meetings as an officer of the company. It has also streamlined various governance processes. It ensures, for instance, that the board has access to the general counsel in real time, which – especially useful during a time of volatility – promotes agility, dynamism and quick decision making.

Being company secretary hasn’t changed my day-to-day role too much. I still enjoy the support of a brilliant team around me to help the business to avoid silly mistakes and ensure we do business in the right way. Note that I say I help us to avoid silly mistakes, not all mistakes; when you have a dynamic organisation, speed of delivery is very important, and you need to promote organisational confidence, so making the business feel frightened or defensive is a no-go. If I had to boil down what defines a top-level general counsel, I would say that this is someone who is able to influence the organisation’s culture and confidence in order to make it successful. My new position as company secretary allows me to continue to do this at a board level in addition to a senior management level.