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Charlie Cornish, CEO, Manchester Airports Group - reflecting on his first year in the role and on building for the future.

Just over a year ago I had the good fortune to become CEO at Manchester Airports Group to help drive our growth over the next five years.

The move followed just over six years on the main board of United Utilities (UU) most recently as Head of the International and UK Commercial businesses. Having grown that portfolio substantially, the board took a strategic decision to divest the non-regulated businesses and I lead this process to a successful completion in autumn 2010.

The CEO role at Manchester Airports Group gave me the chance for a new and different challenge – to lead an already successful group through the next stage of its development.  From a personal perspective it meant remaining in the North West and continuing to make an important contribution to the region. The sector is dynamic and fast moving presenting a number of opportunities for future growth both organically and through acquisition.

In common with most new CEOs, I had a 100 and 300 day plan, intended to provide a degree of structure to my learning needs in a new sector as well as setting out the steps for a strategic review of the business.

Manchester Airports Group comprises four UK airports and a successful property development company. We provide flights to around 200 destinations and are able to attract the major global airlines to Manchester. We are starting to see signs of increased airline and passenger confidence and expect to achieve a steady increase of c3-4% in passenger numbers over the next few years.

Moving forward our agenda will focus on growth opportunities and the provision of efficient customer services to the 25m passengers using our airports every year.  We will also be developing the UK's first 'Airport City' - with Chancellor George Osbourne unveiling plans earlier this month.

In the next twelve months and now that the 'honeymoon period' is over, our priorities will centre on the delivery of strategic plans and the development of high performance teams.

Building a better and bigger airports group presents the team with many interesting challenges in the next five years.  Setting the leadership tone and building leadership capabilities will feature high on my list of priorities and working with Orcid is a key part of our people strategy.

To discuss Chief Executive recruitment please contact Judy Atchison - 01904 481186
 

Posted 25.01.2012