John Barton, previous chair of easyJet and Subsequent, dies aged 77 | Enterprise

John Barton, the chairman of the style chain Ted Baker and the former chair of easyJet and Future, has died.

Ted Baker claimed the veteran businessman, who was appointed non-govt chairman of the troubled vogue retailer last yr, died all of a sudden.

“John was a supply of excellent wisdom for me and for so several of us at Ted Baker, and we will vastly miss his support and steerage,” reported Rachel Osborne, the chief govt of Ted Baker, who joined a thirty day period just before Barton’s appointment in April 2020. “Our feelings and deepest sympathies are with his spouse, Anne, and their relatives.”

Previous week, the 77-year-previous stood down as chairman of easyJet, ending a around 9-yr stint throughout the most tumultuous period of time in the airline’s 26-12 months record.

Barton last yr weathered an attempted ousting by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the airline’s founder and premier shareholder, who threatened to requisition a series of shareholder meetings right after the coronavirus pandemic struck to force easyJet to abandon £4.5bn of planes from Airbus he thought would bankrupt the business enterprise.

At an remarkable normal meeting, Barton arrived by an endeavor to oust him, winning 58% of the vote.

“I am certainly shocked and exceptionally saddened to listen to of John’s passing,” claimed Johan Lundgren, the main executive of easyJet. “I was quite fortuitous to have worked closely with him about the decades and benefited significantly from his wise counsel.

“He was a person of huge integrity who was pretty much liked and respected by everybody across the airline. On behalf of all of his former colleagues at easyJet, we send out our heartfelt sympathies to John’s relatives at this time. He will be drastically missed.”

Stephen Hester, the previous boss of Royal Lender of Scotland who took over from Barton as the chair of easyJet, said he was a “distinguished chair who produced an outstanding contribution to the company” and was “also a superb human being”.

Barton spent 15 several years on the board at the substantial road style retailer Up coming. Becoming a member of as a non-executive director in 2002, he rose to the situation of chairman in 2006. He retired in 2017.

He has also served as the chair of the insurers Catlin, and Cable &…