Cathay's Bamboo Ceiling Provides Poor Cover From China
A two-tier management structure that favors foreign-born executives is breaking down too slowly.
Out the door: John Slosar.
Photographer: Paul Yeung/BloombergLife for Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. was never going to be easy amid conflict between protesters in its home city of Hong Kong and a Chinese government with the power to destroy its business. Still, the company and its controlling shareholder Swire Group might have been in a better position to defend the city's apolitical business values if its leaders had deeper local roots.
That’s the lesson from the departure of American-born John Slosar as Cathay chairman this week and his replacement by another foreign-born “Swire boy,” Patrick Healy. Slosar had angered China by saying the views of employees on Hong Kong’s protest movement were none of the company’s business. He follows former Chief Executive Officer Rupert Hogg, who quit last month, out the door.