Dalton Philips, the former chief executive of the supermarket chain Morrisons and Brown Thomas, has been named as the new head of DAA, the former Dublin Airport Authority.
Mr Philips, who succeeds Kevin Toland who was recently confirmed as the new chief executive of listed Swiss-Irish food group Aryzta, will take up the role in early October. He has been appointed for a seven-year term.
Mr Philips began his career with Enterprise Ireland before joining Jardine Matheson. He later joined the Weston family as chief executive of Brown Thomas before becoming chief operating officer for the group's Canadian business, Loblaw Companies Ltd.
Between 2010 and 2015, he led Morrisons, the fourth largest supermarket chain in the UK.
He is also a senior advisor with the Boston Consulting Group and was last year announced as a non-executive director of One51.
Mr Dalton, who comes from Dublin but lives in Co Wicklow, holds a BA (Hons) from University College Dublin, an MBA from Harvard Business School and an Honorary Doctorate of Management from Bradford University.
“I’m delighted to take up this role after a long career abroad and am looking forward to working with DAA’s strong and ambitious team as well as all the key stakeholders. Our focus will continue to be on providing the best customer experience for the millions of passengers who travel through our airports every year,” said Mr Philips.
Dublin Airport was the fastest growing major European airport last year when it handled nearly 28 million passengers. Numbers at Cork Airport, which DAA also operates, increased by 8 per cent to 2.2 million during the same period.
