Rachel Ford joins Gatwick Airport as new General Counsel and Company Secretary
Rachel Ford will join Gatwick Airport’s executive team on 19 April 2022 to replace Robert Herga as General Counsel and Company Secretary.
Rachel joins Gatwick from Capita where she has served as Group Legal Director and more recently as Chief of Staff to the Capita plc Group Chief Executive Officer. Prior to that role, Rachel worked as in-house Legal Counsel with Thomson Reuters for ten years. She trained as a lawyer in her native Australia and moved to the UK in 2006 to work for Linklaters.
Existing General Counsel and Company Secretary Robert Herga will retire later this year. Robert and Rachel will work together for a short period of time to ensure a smooth handover of this critical role before Robert formally leaves Gatwick.
Robert joined Gatwick in March 2010, following a long and successful career with BAA where he was also General Counsel and Company Secretary. During his time at Gatwick, Robert has helped to steer Gatwick safely through a period of unprecedented growth and through the unique challenges of the last two years.
Stewart Wingate, Chief Executive Officer, Gatwick Airport, said:
“I would like to welcome Rachel to the Executive Team at Gatwick Airport as we all work together to rebuild and grow the business over the coming years.
“I would also personally like to thank Robert for his wise counsel and strong support throughout his time at Gatwick. It has been a real pleasure to have worked closely with him during his tenure and I wish him all the very best for a very well deserved and enjoyable retirement.”
Gatwick is the UK’s second largest airport and flies a range of both short and long-haul point-to-point services. The airport is a vital piece of the UK’s national infrastructure and is also a major driver for both the regional and national economies. In 2019, a new long-term partnership was formed with VINCI Airports which purchased a 50.01% stake in the airport.
The world's leading private airport operator, VINCI Airports operates more than 50 airports in 11 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Thanks to its expertise as a global integrator, VINCI Airports develops, finances, builds and manages airports by providing its investment capacity and its know-how in optimizing operational performance, modernizing infrastructures and managing their operations and environmental transition. VINCI Airports is the first airport operator to have committed to a global international environmental strategy in 2016, to achieve the goal of net zero emission across its entire network by 2050.
For more information:
www.vinci-airports.com
@VINCIAirports
https://www.linkedin.com/company/vinci-airports/
GIP manages the remaining 49.99% interest in Gatwick and is a leading independent infrastructure fund manager that makes equity and debt investments in high quality infrastructure assets in the energy, transport, water/waste and digital infrastructure sectors. GIP manages US$84 billion for its investors. Its 46 portfolio companies have combined annual revenues of US$61 billion and employ nearly 100,000 employees. For more information on GIP please visit https://www.global-infra.com/
