Olympic challenge for high-flyer

WHEN Barbara Cassani sold the no frills airline Go to easyJet for £374 million, just four years after she had launched the company for British Airways, she made an estimated £16 million.

Yet the 43-year old American jumped at another challenge- the chance to lead London’s bid to bring the Olympics to London in 2012. As she says, you can’t get any bigger than the Olympics.

“It was such amazing luck to be chosen for this job given my nationality,” says Boston born Barbara, who has been based in London for 17 years. “I think I’ve proven I’m someone who can get things done, and I think we have a really good chance of winning; therefore everything needs to be lined up with that single approach.”

In Dublin to promote ‘Go, an airline Adventure,’ Barbara hopes her book will appeal to everyone interested in entrepreneurs.

“It’s not an airline junkie’s book,” she says. “I hope people who are interested in business will see that you can run a business where you behave humanely with your colleagues, and do good things for your customers.”

Married to a British Investment Banker, Cassani flourished academically - she has a Masters in International Relations from Princeton University, but she feels education isn’t everything. She values the ‘people skills’ she gained as an impoverished student working as a clumsy waitress where she encountered bullies.

“No experience in work is wasted. I think highly educated people put too much stock into book learning and it produces really narrow skills that are totally selfish. As soon as you step out of your ivory tower and do a waitressing job you are having to communicate with different people. One of the reasons many highly educated people do not do well in business is that they try to emulate their school.”

Barbara’s book is littered with the names of people she worked with in Go.

; they helped on the book, and made the airline the success it was.

“It would not have happened without a ton of people. It’s not ‘The Barbara Cassani show’, but the press try to turn entrepreneur stories into that. I wanted to convey that it was a group of people.”

“We gave a party for people who’d helped on the book. And one woman, who now works for easyJet said, “At Go I never thought there was a ‘them.’ And at easyJet I refer to ‘them’. It was such an interesting thing to say. When you are part of something there is not them, and as soon as you feel they are doing it to you there is.”

“I'm proud that we did the management buyout and shared the equality so broadly in the company,” says Barbara. “It was the right thing to do and it took the sting out of the sale. Can you imagine being 20 years old and getting a lump sum for £18,000?”

It’s no surprise that Barbara avoided flying with her old enemy Ryanair. Sadly, though, our National Airline failed to impress the ex airline head.

“Aer Lingus was very military,” she says. “There was no eye contact, and the systems are so old it took seven minutes to issue a ticket.

“They looked gorgeous, but there was no natural Irish charm.”