{"id":509471,"date":"2026-06-20T10:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509471\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T10:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:56:13","slug":"billionaire-oleary-dampens-succession-hopes-of-ryanair-crew-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509471\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire O\u2019Leary dampens succession hopes of Ryanair crew \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael O\u2019Leary, Ryanair<\/a>\u2019s boss of 32 years, effectively dashed any succession ambitions of senior group executives Eddie Wilson and David O\u2019Brien when he moved in late 2022 to extend his contract out to 2028. <\/p>\n

Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair DAC<\/a>, and O\u2019Brien, who oversees the group\u2019s Air Malta and Lauda Europe operations, are both in their early 60s \u2013 only a few years younger than O\u2019Leary, now 65.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s announcement that O\u2019Leary has agreed to remain at the helm of Europe\u2019s largest airline group <\/a>until April 2032 \u2013 which would bring his tenure to four decades \u2013 is also likely to have cooled the ambitions of a younger generation of managers who are viewed as potential contenders for the top job.<\/p>\n

\"\"Will a Middle East peace deal make any difference to inflation? <\/p>\n

These include chief operations officer Neil McMahon, head of commercial Jason McGuinness, director of sales and marketing Dara Brady and Ryanair DAC chief financial officer Tracey McCann \u2013 who were each name checked by O\u2019Leary in an interview with the Sunday Independent last July as potential candidates to succeed him. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary has strong financial incentives <\/a>to see out his extended contract. Subject to his remaining at the group until \u2060April 2032, he would be \u200bgranted the option of buying 10 million \u200bshares at \u20ac26.70 per share if annual profit reached \u20ac4 billion or if the share \u200cprice exceeded \u20ac42 for 28 successive days. The package is worth a net \u20ac153 million. <\/p>\n

The new agreement was signed just one year after Michael O\u2019Leary became eligible for a share-option award that was valued at approximately \u20ac100 million after tax when Ryanair\u2019s stock reached a specified performance milestone. Since then, the airline\u2019s share price has continued to rise, lifting the package\u2019s current net value to nearly \u20ac150 million. However, O\u2019Leary will only be able to exercise those options if he remains with the company through the end of July 2028.<\/p>\n

According to Ryanair\u2019s latest annual report<\/a>, O\u2019Leary owned close to 44.1 million shares in the airline as of March 2025. During the previous summer, he generated more than \u20ac45 million by selling nearly 1.9 million shares. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Michael O\u2019Leary agrees to extend Ryanair contract into his 70s with potential \u20ac153m pay-dayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Even after that disposal, his remaining stake is valued at more than \u20ac1 billion. This figure does not include the potential value of either of his two significant share-option schemes.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary said of his previous stock options plan that it was good value compared to the \u200csalaries of football stars. He is unlikely to view the latest arrangement any differently, even though it ranks among the most lucrative executive pay deals ever seen in European corporate life.<\/p>\n

The aspiring Ryanair executives who continue to eye his job are unlikely ever to see pay-days remotely comparable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael O\u2019Leary, Ryanair\u2019s boss of 32 years, effectively dashed any succession ambitions of senior group executives Eddie Wilson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,6572,61,60,10726,1899],"class_list":["post-509471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cantillon","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-oleary","tag-ryanair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}