Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Chief Executive of EasyJet, one of only three women in Britain leading a FTSE 100 company, and former head of the Guardian Media Group.
On the island
Eight records
I think they did this for Live Aid. The reason for this really is I love dancing and I love music, and two of my happiest weekends in my life have been my 40th and my 50th birthday. I had my closest mates, my close family, and there was lots of dancing and lots of music, and that's what it reminds me of.
Well, it's really very much about my childhood and my parents. In the mornings, I'd wake up and there'd be classical music everywhere because my mum loved classical music. And by the late afternoon evening, there'd be Dean Marson, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams. And my dad loved all of that music. He's a brilliant singer and a brilliant dancer. And so I had this kind of juxtaposition at home. And this just really reminds me of my parents.
Mimi's Farewell (from La Bohème)
Well, opera for me is just a very special thing. I met my husband at university and for our first wedding anniversary, he booked to go and see Turindo. And I just loved, I loved the music, I loved the set, I loved everything about it. … I just love the Maria Canis version of Mimi's Farewell.
Sweet Certain SurpriseFavourite
Well, you could play anything by John Martin, and I would love it. I just think he's amazing. And this is all about, you know, my university days, really. … It was the first song at our wedding: Sweet Certain Surprise.
This exact track came out as a big hit when we were doing the Berliner and we played it as the background for all the internal communication we did around Berliner.
The reason I've got this here is because it reminds me of driving down to Devon to see some very good friends of ours when the kids were very young and it had been a really long journey. And just as we were coming into Devon, we could see the sea. Pete put this Beach Boys CD in the thing, and all you could see were all these heads bobbing in the car. She all started singing and it was just fantastic. We all started laughing.
Paul Weller is a huge hero for me in the music world. But again, this is very much about my time at university and lots of bands, lots of fun. Now, I got to university and it was liberating. Having come from boarding school, I was probably quite naive and innocent, you know, and I suddenly had this whole world open up to me and it was fantastic.
This is a very special piece of music for me. It was introduced to me by my husband. I used to play the piano and I gave it up. If I had one regret, it would be that I didn't do more than my Grade 8 piano exam. I mean, it's just an amazing piece of music.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:26When are the moments that you most need to rally the self-belief?
Well, I think when I left the very safe and secure environment of The Guardian Media Group, you know, I knew I was taking quite a big risk. It was a calculated risk. I had to talk long and hard with my husband. But I did just constantly feel it was worth it.
Presenter asks
2:34What's the problem with the low number of women CEOs of FTSE 100 companies? Is it that women don't want it enough, or is it the way companies run that mean women can't do the job?
Women usually, not at their first child, but by their second child, they're thinking this is too hard. I've got to get out of this because I can't make the numbers work, and actually, I'm stressed all the time. What companies I think need to do, and I do it and I've done it everywhere I am, is really try and hold those really brilliant women in that middle management level. So, whether that is that they might do a job share, they might do part-time for a period of time. For me, the focus is really about bringing people onto executive committees and management boards because they're the people that will be the next generation of CEOs.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
Can we talk for a minute about Sir Stelios, who founded EasyJet and who still is a shareholder? He's certainly very vocal about the way you run the business. How easy is that to deal with?
Well, I feel that, you know, we are extremely keen to engage with all our shareholders. And we want to listen. You want to be open and constructive with all your shareholders. And I think that works. The other thing is that we, as a management team, have just put our heads down and not been distracted by any noise. So whatever happens in the media on any of that, we just don't let it divert us.
Presenter asks
8:48Tell me more about growing up in India, because inevitably you must have had a very different childhood from if you'd been growing up in Britain at the same time.
My early memories are of being in quite nice houses and seeing my grandparents a lot and running around this coffee estate [with] 13 dogs, you know. We had lots of Indian friends as well as English friends out there. And I love Indian food, so it gave me a complete love for anything spicy. … I had the equivalent of an ayah, which is like an annie, and I was very close … but they had a lot of help, yes. They had a cook and a driver. So, you know, I suppose that was a very comfortable world. You know, I never cooked until I got to university. Never had to think about it, really.
Presenter asks
11:58Given how busy you are and how much time your career has taken up, were you determined not just to have one child yourself? Did you think 'I don't want to have an only child'?
No, I mean, I just think there's too much made about being an only child. … It's made me very independent, but also really value my close family and my close friends. On the other hand, I have to also say completely that when I had my own children, I wanted someone really close to me I could just share that with. The other point in my life where I really would have loved a brother or a sister is as my mum has got very, very ill and it's been very difficult. And I had no one really to help me with that. That was really difficult.
Presenter asks
16:15You worked as a teacher in a London comprehensive school. How did it go?
Actually, I absolutely loved it. I really so much respect for the teachers I was working with. And the kids were brilliant, actually. But it was a very tricky school because it was a mixed, very mixed catchment area. So you were having to handle very big classes, 35 to 40 kids, who, you know, didn't really want to learn about the Russian Revolution.
“I didn't even think very much about the reams of newsprint that were written. I kind of put it down to the fact that I was a woman, actually, rather than anything else. You know, most CEOs of FTSE 100 companies don't get that kind of coverage when they move jobs.”
“So this other CEO of a very large airline said, you know what, you will be grateful for this. I know he doesn't feel it at the time, but you've had to deal in six months with what most CEOs don't have to deal with in a decade. And he was right, actually.”
“I think the latter. I think being an only child and being surrounded by adults quite a lot probably helps that. I'm never in awe. I just feel people are just human beings and they'll communicate with you on that level.”
“I had no career plan, really. I woke up one day from university, I thought, oh my god, I'm going to have to go back to Singapore. And I'd met all my friends at university and I had met my boyfriend who became my future husband. And I thought, I don't want to go back to Singapore. I want to be here. So how am I going to stay here? I might as well do teacher training. That's how planned it was.”
“My family is really, really the vital part of my existence. So I do sometimes say to the kids, well, what do you want? Do you want me to give up work? And they go, oh my god, no. I mean, they really don't want me. I'd be on their backs all the time if I came otherwise. But you know, I've never not worked. Never. And I think that's not about identity because I could go off and be a teacher. It's about being active and busy and stimulated.”
“If I had one regret, it would be that I didn't do more than my Grade 8 piano exam.”