Alan Ruddock: Michael O'Leary

by Ruddock, Alan

ISBN: 9781844880553

Published: 2007

Michael O'Leary is a business giant, a man Fortune and Wired magazines describe as one of the most influential business leaders of this generation. He transformed Ryanair from a loss-making joke of an Irish carrier into the most valuable airline in Europe - and the second most valuable in the world. His formula of low fares and no frills, or flights to destinations most people had never heard of before, has created a generation of travellers who jump on planes as if they were buses. His face and his often outrageous views - on national governments, on the EU, and on his rivals - are rarely out of the papers. But for all the publicity, little is known about Michael O'Leary beyond the carefully constructed image that he chooses to present: of the plucky little Paddy in jeans who is sticking it to the big boys. In this, the first biography of O'Leary, the distinguished business journalist Alan Ruddock portrays the man in three dimensions, from his unsettled middle-class childhood to...