A Heathrow executive who presided over controversial security outsourcing plans that angered staff has been hired as the new chief executive of Royal Mail.
International Distributions Services, the owner of Royal Mail, has named Emma Gilthorpe as the new chief of its postal service.
Ms Gilthorpe, currently the chief operating officer at Heathrow Airport, will join the group in May and take charge of Royal Mail in the summer.
Her move comes just months after Heathrow faced an internal backlash over plans to outsource security roles, a shake-up affecting hundreds of workers at Europe’s busiest airport.
Emma Gilthorpe at the time said that ICTS, a third-party supplier, would be tasked with overseeing Heathrow’s “campus security” control posts. Heathrow said no jobs were at risk under the outsourcing plans.
However, union bosses are considering walkouts later this year in response to the changes, threatening to disrupt holiday plans for thousands of families over the summer. Heathrow insists it has the necessary safeguards in place to avoid disruption from any strike action.
Ms Gilthorpe will be tasked with improving performance at Royal Mail, which has been struggling to improve poor results and faced a fractious relationship with staff.
Royal Mail was fined £5.6m by Ofcom last year for failing to deliver post on time and was accused by MPs of prioritising more profitable parcels over letters. Last year the postal service reported a £1bn loss after months of industrial action by staff.
Ms Gilthorpe’s appointment marks Royal Mail’s fourth chief executive in five years and follows the sudden departure of former boss Simon Thompson last year.
Mr Thompson stepped down after just two years at the helm after facing disruptive strike action led by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) over pay and working conditions.
The former Apple and Ocado executive sought to modernise Royal Mail by refocusing its delivery business towards parcels, amid fierce competition from delivery rivals such as Amazon and Evri.
However, Mr Thompson, who received an annual salary of £750,000, was accused by union chiefs of trying to turn the Royal Mail into a gig economy employer.
Ms Gilthorpe will take over from interim boss Martin Seidenberg, who temporarily took on the role alongside his existing position as chief executive of IDS following Mr Thompson’s exit last year.
Ms Gilthorpe, who was appointed chief operating officer of Heathrow in 2020, is leaving after nearly 15 years at the UK’s biggest airport.
She was among the favourites to become the new chief executive of Heathrow last year, a position that was ultimately handed to Thomas Woldbye, the boss of Copenhagen Airports.
Ms Gilthorpe is currently a non-executive board member of the green travel body Jet Zero Council, a core part of the Government’s promise to achieve net zero aviation by 2050.
She previously sat on the board of US aircraft operating giant Signature Aviation, and held director roles at BT and broadband network Openreach.
Ms Gilthorpe said: “Royal Mail is a great British brand with a long and proud history.
“Now is the time to ensure it has a successful future too, working in partnership with our employees, customers and all our stakeholders to continue to modernise Royal Mail and deliver the high standards of service our customers rightly expect.”
Royal Mail has been lobbying the Government and regulators to scrap its legal requirement to deliver post six days a week. The company argues that the requirement has become a financial millstone as letter volumes decline.
Delivery volumes have fallen by more than 10 billion letters in the past two decades. Royal Mail has increased the price of all postage stamps twice in the past six months to try and offset some of the cost of maintaining its delivery network even as volumes tumble.
Regulator Ofcom called for a “national debate on [the] future of [the] UK’s postal service” in January as it set out a range of proposals for how to save money.
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