Michael O'Leary (Ryanair)

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For other persons named Michael O'Leary, see Michael O'Leary (disambiguation).

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 €466 million.^[1]

1 Early life
2 Ryanair career
- 2.1 Controversy
- 2.2 Registration of private car as taxi
3 Personal life
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early life

Michael O'Leary is the eldest of a family of six. 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 college)^[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 said^[3], over a two-year period. Tony Ryan, head of GPA (Guiness Peat Aviation), tried to hire Michael O'Leary as he was leaving SKC. Tony Ryan succeded in hiring O'Leary as a personal financial advisor at the age of 26, in 1987. Tony Ryan's main interest at the time was was in GPA. Ryanair was also being set up the time. Initally the airline had some success, but later began to guzzle cash. Michael O'Leary was sent to the USA to study the Southwest Airlines model, and returned - still as a personal advisor - with many ideas.

[edit] Ryanair career

O'Leary was 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 has further developed the low-cost model originated by Southwest Airlines^[4] The deregulation of Ireland's major airports (beginning with the dissolution of Aer Rianta, Ireland's principal airport authority, which occurred in 2004), and the shake-up of traditional full-service airlines are among his most well known demands. O'Leary said in February 2007 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" RTE radio 10 February 2007 ^[5] ^[6].

[edit] Controversy

O'Leary has a somewhat fiery reputation among both his competitors in the airline industry and the regulators. He often comes across as arrogant and unpleasant and has on numerous occasions stooped to gratuitous rudeness and foul language in his public statements ^[7] ^[8] ^[9] ^[10] His no-nonsense management style, extreme cost-cutting and meanness towards staff ^[11], provocative advertising ^[12] and his deliberate targeting and scathing criticisms of competitors, airport authorities, governments, and unions have become a hallmark. Recently he was forced to retract a claim that Ryanair had cut emissions of carbon dioxide by half over the past five years ^[13]. 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 ^[14]

[edit] 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 ^[15]. 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. ^[16] ^[17]

[edit] Personal life

O'Leary lives in Gigginstown House near Mullingar. He married Anita Farrell in 2003 and their first child, Matthew, was born in September 2005. He breeds horses at his Gigginstown House Stud^[18] in County Westmeath and in 2006, his horse War of Attrition trained by Michael 'Mouse' Morris at Fethard, County Tipperary, and ridden by Conor O'Dwyer won the Cheltenham Gold Cup ^[19] which is the blue riband of steeplechasing.