City furore as BT chairman adds hot seat at easyJet

EasyJet, no stranger to controversy in recent months, stretched corporate governance rules today by naming BT's Sir Michael Rake as its new chairman.

The budget airline said Rake, the former head of the KPMG accountancy giant, is to replace the retiring Sir Colin Chandler.

Although the easyJet chairmanship is part-time, corporate governance rules in the City have sought to discourage companies from taking on a chairman who already holds the same post at a big company over fears that the workload would be too great.

The updated rules after the Higgs Report in 2003 said that one individual should not chair two FTSE 100 companies without the companies making an explanation.

While easyJet is not in the Footsie, it has in the past been close to breaking into the blue-chip index.

In any case, Rake, who also sits on the board of Barclays, is unlikely to find the easyJet job, which comes with a salary of £200,000 a year, a sinecure.

He is walking into the back end of a row in which the executives led by Andy Harrison have been involved in a stand-off with Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The founder of easyJet, who continues to speak for 41% of the shares, has been demanding the airline's management rein in their expansion plans and start farming cash and paying shareholders - most notably Sir Stelios - a dividend.

Tough times at easyJet were indicated today as the airline reported a 6.3% slump in passenger numbers in March though that figure has been skewed by a late Easter.

Sir David Michels, the senior independent director, praised Chandler's role in easyJet's growth. "Colin's contribution to the success of easyJet has been significant," he said.