rod lynch
Rod Lynch loves a challenge. Whether he is called upon to resuscitate an ailing European airline, play an executive role in the BBC, or oversee the expansion of a major hotel chain, his troubleshooting skills have earned him a reputation as a 'fixer' throughout the international business community, writes Jane Smernicki.
It is this reputation which last April won him the role of chief executive of visitscotland, catapulting him into the public arena in the process. For four days he was heralded as the saviour who would heal the wounds of Scotland's flagging tourist industry in the face of falling visitor numbers, worsened by the country's disastrous foot-and-mouth crisis. With a superb record of nearly three decades in the tourism industry, spent largely with British Airways, Lynch was singled out as the high flyer who could meet the demands of the role.
But a political fracas broke out when, less than a week after announcing Lynch as their man, visitscotland controversially withdrew the job offer because he was to divide his time between it and his executive role with an air freight company.
'I was disappointed largely because the whole thing fell into politics rather than the task in hand which is what had excited me,' he said. 'A turnaround of the Scottish tourist industry would have been the biggest challenge of all.'
That determination and thirst for challenge, so apparent when talking to Lynch today, were already showing themselves during his student years at the University of Dundee where he founded the student travel service, operating out of a run down office in Roseangle.
Lynch admits, 'In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. I had already managed to work the previous summer with BA as a temporary traffic agent and had been bitten by the travel bug. I knew a wee bit about airline tickets and travel and so on and nobody else knew a thing. People kept asking me for advice and I thought we should set something up'. Demand quickly grew and by his graduation day the advisory service had become a fully accredited travel agency, employing several members of staff and providing national and international travel bookings for students
He threw himself enthusiastically into student life but, describing himself as an 'educational minimalist', admits that his economics and history lectures often took a back seat to the other activities which occupied his time during the three years he spent in Dundee.
Armed with a 'bog standard' ordinary social science degree, Lynch left Dundee for London in 1972 to take up what turned out to be an 18 year post with British Airways. Filling various management positions he ultimately took up the 'engaging' role of head of BA's customer service. He thrived on the constant demands of controlling 18,000 staff spanning five different time zones and flying the equivalent of round the world every three weeks.
Speaking from the comfort of his Chiswick home, he can now laugh at the memory of freezing winters in his haar-shrouded Step Row digs. 'After a Step Row winter we were like animals in the Canadian north coming staggering out of the snow in April. I remember our loo even froze up once. Surviving the cold certainly was character forming.'
Of his achievements, which include becoming, at 30, BA's youngest general manager and saving the troubled Greek airline, Olympic Airways, he says, 'I tend to get bored of things which are stable and steady and I like things that catch the imagination - big, big projects.'
But despite periods when the job 'blanks everything else out' Lynch grabs relaxation time whenever possible. An avid rugby fan, much of his spare time is occupied with presiding over the London Scottish Rugby Club, while a relaxing stroll around an art gallery or the golf course helps to compensate for the pressures of working life.
Today Lynch is looking ahead to the launch of new Essex-based air cargo company Global Supply Systems, of which he is chairman. Typically though he has a few more plans up his sleeve, about which he is remaining stumm. '...I'm not done yet.'
Jane Smernicki graduated from the University of Dundee in 1997.
She spent 3 years as a news reporter and a year travelling in Australia
before joining Press & Publications in February 2002.
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