Business Diary: Hot water for Ryanair
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Your support makes all the difference.No-frills airline Ryanair can't even appoint a non-executive director without swimming into choppy waters. It has signed up Charlie McCreevy, the former European Union commissioner, to join its board. Cue a storm of protest, because Mr McCreevy is very obviously breaking the Commission's code of conduct preventing officials taking up jobs in related industries within a year of stepping down. The Commission itself, however, has cleared the appointment, so Ryanair is in the clear.
No room for smugness at G4S
On the subject of board appointments, security firm G4S is jumping up and down with pride about hiring Clare Spottiswoode as a non-exec. She joins, G4S points out gleefully, just as the Financial Reporting Council has updated the corporate governance code with new rules to encourage companies to put more women on their boards. Still, while the highly regarded Spottiswoode should prove an excellent director, G4S is hardly a beacon of board diversity. She joins 10 other directors – all of whom are very male and very white.
Posties to keep pedalling?
The appointment of Moya Greene as the new chief executive of Royal Mail prompts the launch of a campaign from the CTC, the cycling lobby group. Former boss Adam Crozier was to cut back on the group's 24,000-strong fleet of postmen using bikes – on health and safety grounds apparently. The CTC hopes Greene will take a different view. It has launched a "Keep Posties Cycling" petition and plans to deliver it to Greene – by bike, naturally – when she starts her new role.
Insurer message to England fans
The Association of British Insurers has finally got round to an attempt to use the World Cup in South Africa to punt its members' products. "If you have any pre-existing medical conditions, make sure you tell your travel insurer," the ABI helpfully points out. Something for Gareth Barry and various other crocked England players to remember – let alone David Beckham, going along despite a ruptured tendon.
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