Alan Joseph Joyce (born 30 June 1966[1]) is an Irish-Australian businessman. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Qantas Airways Limited from 2008 until his resignation on September 5, 2023.[2]
Early life and education
Joyce was born and raised in Tallaght, now a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. His mother was a cleaner, and his father worked in a tobacco factory. Joyce attended secondary school at St Mark's Community School in Springfield, Tallaght.[1]
In 1988, Joyce commenced work at Aer Lingus, the flag carrier of Ireland. He held various positions in sales, marketing, information technology, network planning, operations research, revenue management and fleet planning.[3] In 1996, he resigned to join the now-defunct Ansett Australia.[4] In 2000, Joyce joined Qantas.[5] At both Ansett Australia and Qantas, he headed the Network Planning, Schedules Planning and Network Strategy functions.[3] Joyce was appointed CEO of Qantas subsidiary Jetstar Airways in October 2003.[3][6]
In 2010, a Senate inquiry into airline safety in low-cost airline practices was called. Joyce was called to testify regarding a 2007 incident that had occurred when he was CEO of Jetstar.[8][9][10]
On 25 February 2011, at his first hearing at the Senate inquiry, Joyce insisted safety was aligned in the Qantas Group. He closed his opening statement with "Let me make this clear: at Jetstar there is no compromise on safety. The budget airline model does not require it, and we would never accept it. Qantas and Jetstar have different brands, but are completely aligned on safety. We would never compromise that."[11]
On 24 June 2011, The Sydney Morning Herald reported, "Qantas and Jetstar intend to press ahead with their plans to fast-track relatively inexperienced co-pilots into airliner cockpits, despite a parliamentary inquiry yesterday finding against the practice", while also noting that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority had argued that "there is no evidence to suggest that [the cadet training schemes] approach has resulted in any diminution of safety standards".[12]
2011 Qantas industrial disputes
On 29 October 2011, as a result of continuing industrial unrest following the announcement of job losses and structural changes at Qantas, Joyce grounded the entire Qantas mainline fleet.[13]
The Australian named Joyce the most influential business leader in 2011.[14] Yet a poll following his controversial 2011 grounding of the Qantas fleet showed the action has increased negative public perception of the airline.[15] In 2011, Joyce's remuneration was increased 71 percent from $2.92 million in 2009–10 to $5.01 million and he was granted 1.7 million Qantas shares under a long-term incentive plan.[16] His reported comments that his salary was "conservative" were criticised by the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA).[17]
2016–2017 company restructuring
The Guardian reported Joyce's total pay package had doubled to $24.6 million for the 2016-17 financial year, nearly twice as much as the $12.96m he received in the previous 12 months.[18] This followed the airline announcing it will cut 5000 full-time jobs to achieve $2bn in cost reductions by the same financial year.[19]
2017 pie attack incident
On 9 May 2017, Joyce was delivering a speech to a business breakfast event in Perth, when a lemon meringue pie was pushed into his face by Tony Overheu, a Western Australian farmer and Christian.[20] Overheu subsequently apologised for humiliating the CEO, claiming that he pied the business figure due to his personal belief that Joyce had overstepped the line in his gay marriage advocacy and the assailant's response simply reflected community push-back. He was later convicted of common assault, trespass, causing damage to property and giving false details to police.[21][22][23]
Later years and retirement
In May 2019, Joyce committed to three more years as the chief executive of Qantas.[24] In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Joyce gave up his salary for the rest of the financial year.[25] In May 2023, Joyce announced that he would step aside as Qantas CEO in November, being replaced by Vanessa Hudson, the group's then current CFO.[26] In September 2023, it was reported that the company allegedly continued to sell tickets for flights after they had been cancelled.[27] Several media articles, notably from journalist Joe Aston in the Australian Financial Review, were critical of Joyce's handling of these revelations and transparency from the airline.[28] Joyce resigned early as a result, on September 5, 2023. Hudson succeeded him the following day.[2]
In January 2024, Alan also resigned from the Sydney Theatre company.[29]
Honours and awards
The Australian named Joyce the most influential business leader in 2011.[14]
Joyce identifies as being Catholic. In 2015, he became a member of the Australian Republic Movement, which argues that Australia should replace the monarchy to become a republic with an Australian head of state.
Joyce has been outspoken in supporting the LGBTI community. He personally donated $1 million towards the campaign to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia,[38] which facilitated his own marriage in 2019. Joyce is the patron of the Pinnacle Foundation, an organisation which works with "disadvantaged and marginalised LGBT Australians".[39] For his work, he has been recognised on a global list of LGBT executives.[40] As Qantas CEO, Joyce pledged Qantas would "continue social-justice campaigning".[41][38][31]
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