Basil Geoghegan Appointed daa Chairman Designate

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross TD, has appointed Basil Geoghegan as Chairman designate of daa.

Mr Geoghegan is a Partner of PJT Partners, a US based publicly listed advisory investment bank. Since establishing PJT, he has led its business in the UK and Ireland. He is also currently a non-executive Director of the Irish Aviation Authority, a position from which he will step down prior to his taking up the position of daa Chairman.

Prior to PJT Partners, Mr Geoghegan was a Managing Director with Citigroup in the UK and Ireland, and he also previously worked for Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.

“I am honoured to have been given the opportunity to help Dalton Philips and his team build on the world-class airport and travel retail business that is daa, and to take it to the next level of growth and service,” Mr Geoghegan said.

“Over the course of my career I have worked with many aviation businesses and I look forward to bringing this experience to the role. I believe there are extensive opportunities for daa – both at home and abroad – and I look forward to playing my part in helping the company realise these.”

daa Chief Executive Dalton Philips, said Mr Geoghegan was “a fantastic choice” to become Chairman designate of daa. “Basil’s global business and financial experience, particularly in the aviation sector, will be of great assistance to myself and my team as we build on daa’s existing strong position. I would also like to thank daa’s former Chairman Pádraig Ó Rí­ordáin, who has been an excellent steward of daa over the last seven years, and leaves the company in a very strong position, with huge growth opportunities.”

Mr Geoghegan is a qualified solicitor, having worked with Slaughter and May in London. He is a Scholar of, and holds an LL.B from Trinity College, Dublin and an LL.M. from the European University Institute, Florence. He is a Patron of The Ireland Fund of Great Britain.

daa plays an essential role within the Irish economy, with Dublin and Cork airports alone generating or facilitating more than 128,000 jobs in the Irish economy and contributing the equivalent of €9 billion worth of GDP annually. Dublin and Cork airports provide key gateways for visitors to Ireland and both airports continue to grow their passenger numbers. Traffic at Dublin Airport increased by 6% last year to a record 29.6 million, while passenger numbers at Cork Airport increased by 3.4% to 2.3 million passengers.

daa also operates the global travel retail business ARI, which has shops in 12 countries, and daa International, which manages Terminal 5 at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Further information:

Paul O’Kane, 353 86 6090221, 353 1 8141897