MICHAEL O'LEARY (RYANAIR)

'Michael O'Leary' (born 1961) is chief executive of the low-cost airline Ryanair. He is one of the Republic of Ireland's richest people, with an estimated fortune of €636 million.^[1]

Contents

Early life

Ryanair career

Controversy and bad behaviour

Registration of private car as taxi

Personal life

References

External links

Early life

Michael O'Leary, eldest of a family of six, was born in Kanturk, County Cork. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare. In 1979 he began a four-year Bachelor in Business Studies programme at Trinity College. He funded his studies by working as a barman at an uncle's hotel. He graduated in 1983 with a 2.1 grade (the press often wrongly affirms that O'Leary dropped out of university)^[2]. He then worked as an accountant with Stokes Kennedy Crowley (later known as KPMG). He worked towards qualifications as a tax consultant. He left after two years in 1985 to set up a newsagent's business in Walkinstown, and then a second one in Terenure, Dublin, "making a lot of money" as he has said², over a two-year period.
In SKC, Michael O'Leary had met Tony Ryan, head of GPA (Guinness Peat Aviation, a leasing company), as one of the firm's clients, advising on Ryan on his personal income tax. In 1987, Ryan hired O'Leary as his personal financial and tax advisor at the age of 26. Ryan's main interest at the time was in GPA. Ryanair was also being set up at the time. The fledgling airline at first followed a traditional business model, but quickly began to guzzle cash. O'Leary was sent to the USA to study the Southwest Airlines model, and returned - still as a personal advisor to Ryan - with many ideas.

Ryanair career

O'Leary was Deputy Chief Executive of Ryanair between 1991 and 1994. In January 1994 he was promoted to chief executive of Ryanair. Under O'Leary's management, Ryanair further developed the low-cost model originated by Southwest Airlines^[3] The deregulation of Ireland's major airports (beginning with the dissolution of Aer Rianta, Ireland's principal airport authority, in 2004), and the shake-up of traditional full-service airlines are among his best-known demands.^{2 [4]} that he intended to stand down from the Ryanair helm in "over the next few years" as the "nature of the airline has to change".

Controversy and bad behaviour

O'Leary has a somewhat fiery reputation among both his competitors in the airline industry and regulators. He has often been described as arrogant ^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]} and has on numerous occasions stooped to gratuitous rudeness and foul language in his public statements ^{[11] [12] [13] [14]
[15] [16] [17] [18]}
His no-nonsense management style, extreme cost-cutting and meanness towards staff ¹⁵, provocative advertising ¹², and his deliberate targeting and scathing criticisms of competitors, airport authorities, governments, and unions have become a hallmark. He has been reported to have been abusive and prone to outbursts when dealing with staff and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern ^[19] . Recently he was forced to retract a claim that Ryanair had cut emissions of carbon dioxide by half over the past five years ^[20]. O'Leary has been reported to have impersonated a journalist in an attempt to find out what information
an airport authority had passed on to a newspaper following a safety incident on a Ryanair flight ^[21]

Registration of private car as taxi

In 2004 he purchased a hackney plate for his Mercedes-Benz to enable it to be classified as a taxi so that he could legally make use of Dublin's bus lanes to speed his car journeys around the city ^[22]. A press report suggested that he was stopped driving his own taxi. In 2005 the transport minister of the Republic of Ireland expressed concern at this abuse by O'Leary and others. He is believed to be the owner of the only Bugatti Veyron in Ireland and has reportedly been refused a taxi plate for same by the carriage office .^{[23] [24]}

Personal life

O'Leary lives in Gigginstown House near Mullingar. He married Anita Farrell in 2003 and their first child, Matt, was born in September 2005 followed by another son, Luke, in April 2007. He breeds Aberdeen Angus cattle and horses at his Gigginstown House Stud^[25] in County Westmeath.
In 2006, his horse ''War of Attrition'' won the Cheltenham Gold Cup ^[26]. This is the blue riband of steeplechasing. ''War of Attrition'' was trained by Michael 'Mouse' Morris at Fethard, County Tipperary, and ridden by Conor O'Dwyer

References

1. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/specials/rich_list/
2. RTÉ radio 10 February 2007, in "Conversations with Eamon Dunphy"
3. A radical Fix for Airlines: Make Flying Free, 'Forbes', April1, 2006
4. http://www.irishpost.co.uk/news/story.asp?j=5286&cat=news
5. http://www.zeit.de/2004/29/Monti-Amt?page=4
6. http://www.epolitix.com/EN/ForumBriefs/200702/94382ad2-5e35-449a-a96c-efed15704d95.htm
7. http://www.nieuwsblad.be/Article/Detail.aspx?articleID=grufctss
8. http://www.gqmagazine.co.uk/Daily_News/default.aspx?related=high%20flying
9. http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/07/06/story813091014.asp
10. http://www.rvu.nl/archief/nep/2003/stuntvliegers.pdf
11. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6098281/site/newsweek/
12. http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article1816866.ece
13. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/10/05/bcnryan105.xml
14. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1513268,00.html
15. http://www.guardian.co.uk/airlines/story/0,,1888915,00.html
16. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article676356.ece
17. http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2003/february/i_qa.html
18. http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9681074
19. http://www.irishdemocrat.co.uk/book-reviews/the-uncrowned-king-of-economy-class-travel/
20. http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/01/30/afx3376002.html
21. http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=498833&issue_id=5125
22. http://www.moneyweek.com/file/20102/michael-oleary-profile-.html
23. http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/index.php3?issue_id=8841
24. http://www.taxi.ie/oleary-taxi.shtml#
25. 2006 Cheltenham Gold Cup, March 16, 2006
26. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5265260.stm

External links

★ 'Ryanair'

★ Fortune magazine name Michael O'Leary as the European Businessman of the Year