International Airlines Group (IAG), formed by the merger of British Airways and Iberia, has established a new IR team headed by Andrew Barker, the former easyJet IRO.
Barker and his team start work today following the listing of IAG shares on stock markets in the UK and Spain this morning.
The new team features staff members from the IR teams of both BA and Iberia, but does not include George Stinnes, BA’s long-serving head of IR, or his counterpart at Iberia, Elena Baillo. A spokesperson for BA says Stinnes’ new role will be announced shortly.
Barker is a former transport analyst at UBS who joined easyJet as head of IR in 2005. A year later he was promoted to the position of director of planning, strategy and government affairs.
Prior to his analyst career, Barker read Oriental studies at the University of Oxford. He is fluent in Japanese.
Barker’s team includes two IR managers, Sarah Billington and Irene de José Zalve, who join from BA and Iberia, respectively. The fourth and final member of the team is senior manager of IR Anne Hurn.
IR magazine understands the IR team at IAG will sit down to divide up responsibilities this afternoon.
Shares in IAG began trading today on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and on the bourses of Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia.
IAG’s chief executive Willie Walsh and chairman Antonio Vázquez were at the LSE this morning to witness the start of trading. Walsh said in a statement he hopes that other airlines will join IAG to create ‘a multinational multi-brand airline group’.
