Sir Roderick Ian Eddington AO FTSE (born 2 January 1950) is an Australian businessman. He was first appointed to the board of

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...

in 1999, still serves on

News Corp News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the News Corporation (1980–2013), original News Corporation, it was formed ...

board and also serves on the board of another of

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

's companies,

21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, f ...

, as well as the

Herald and Weekly Times The Herald and Weekly Times Pty Ltd (HWT) is a newspaper publishing company based in Melbourne, Australia. It is owned and operated by News Pty Ltd, which as News Ltd, purchased the HWT in 1987. Newspapers The HWT's newspaper interests date b ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. Eddington is chair of

Lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

and serves on the board of its Japanese parent company, Kirin. He is also chair of

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the wo ...

's Asia-Pacific Advisory Council, chair of

Infrastructure Partnerships Australia Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA) is an industry body representing Australia’s infrastructure industry. Infrastructure Partnerships Australia was launched in 2005 by then NSW Premier Morris Iemma, and in Victoria by then Treasurer Jo ...

, and a member of the

APEC The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Business Advisory Council. He has served in other senior positions including as CEO of

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

Education and career

Coming from a country area where there were no high schools, Eddington went to Perth in 1963 to attend

Christ Church Grammar School , motto_translation = God is our leader, learning is our light , established = , founder = William Joseph McClemans , type = Independent single-sex early learning, primary, and secondary day and boarding school , gender = Boys , deno ...

. He studied engineering at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

and graduated with first class honours in 1972. He continued his studies at UWA and completed the degree of Master of Engineering. In 1974, Eddington was the

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

from Western Australia. He completed his DPhil in the Department of Engineering Science at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and played eight

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

matches for

Oxford University Cricket Club Oxford University Cricket Club (OUCC), which represents the University of Oxford, has always held first-class status since 1827 when it made its debut in the inaugural University Match between OUCC and Cambridge University Cricket Club (CUCC). ...

in 1975 and 1976. He was President of

Vincent's Club Vincent's Club is a sports club predominantly but not exclusively for Oxford blues at Oxford University. The club was founded in 1863 by oarsman Walter Bradford Woodgate (1841–1920) of Brasenose College, Oxford, and he was the first presid ...

in 1977. Eddington joined the

Swire Group Swire Group () is a Hong Kong- and London-based British conglomerate. Many of its core businesses can be found within the Asia Pacific region, where traditionally Swire's operations have centred on Hong Kong and mainland China. Within Asia ...

in 1979, working for its subsidiary

Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific (), is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have sc ...

, before being appointed Managing Director in 1992. Continuing his association with the airline industry; News Limited, subsidiary of News Corporation, appointed Eddington Chairman of

Ansett Australia Ansett Australia was a major Australian airline group, based in Melbourne, Australia. The airline flew domestically within Australia and from the 1990s to destinations in Asia. After operating for 65 years, the airline was placed into adminis ...

in January 1997, four years before the airline failed. News Corp had taken control of the airline with

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

in 1979. Eddington was appointed Deputy Chairman of News Limited in September 1998. He was further promoted to the News Corporation board in September 1999.

British Airways CEO

Eddington replaced former BA CEO

Bob Ayling Robert John Ayling (born 3 August 1946), also known as Bob Ayling, is a British retired lawyer and businessman who has worked with a variety of high-profile companies and organisations. From 1996 to 2000, he was the CEO of British Airways. He al ...

on 2 May 2000. He removed many aspects of Ayling's corporate relaunch in early 2001: the unpopular ethnic-art tailfins were changed back to the traditional Union Jack tailfin. He steered the company in the aftermath of the

11 September 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

which proved disastrous for many other airlines. The decision to permanently retire the British Airways Concorde in 2003 was made by Eddington, and his action remains highly controversial. Eddington stood down as chief executive officer of British Airways on 30 September 2005, after more than five years in the position. He then returned to Australia to take up a position as the head of the Victorian Major Events Association, succeeding

Steve Vizard Stephen William Vizard AM (born 6 March 1956) is an Australian television and radio presenter, producer, writer, lawyer and businessman. He is an adjunct professor at Monash University and University of Adelaide. Vizard has written for and ...

. Eddington was replaced by Willie Walsh in October 2005 after he had followed a six-month shadow position.

Career as a company director

Past

In February 2006, Eddington was a non-executive board member of

JPMorgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...

(Non-Executive Chairman For Australia And New Zealand); News Corporation (non-executive director of publicly-listed Delaware-based company); John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd. (non-executive director);

Rio Tinto Group Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian Multinational corporation, multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine ...

(non-executive director of two publicly-listed companies in the group). Eddington also served on the board of

Allco Finance Group Allco Financial Group was a fully integrated global financial services business, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and headquartered in Sydney. Major services provided were structured asset finance, funds management and debt and equity fun ...

, where he was one of three non-executive directors to approve Allco's ill-fated acquisition of Rubicon Holdings.

Current

As of 2018 he still served on the boards of

and

. In April 2019 he joined the board of News Corp's

. Eddington was appointed to the board of

in March 2011, and appointed chair in March 2012. He joined the parent company's board ( Kirin) in March 2020, and holds these positions . Eddington was: *chair of

's Asia-Pacific Advisory Council; *chair of

; *a member of the

APEC The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Business Advisory Council; and *President of the Australia Japan Business Cooperation Committee.

Government reports

Transport Study in Britain

On 1 December 2006, Eddington published a UK government-sponsored report into the future of Britain's transport infrastructure. The Eddington Transport Study set out the case for action to improve road and rail networks, as a "crucial enabler of sustained productivity and competitiveness". The report's main conclusions were that Britain has transport networks that provide the right connections, in the right places, to support the journeys that matter to economic performance. But roads in particular were in serious danger of becoming so congested, the economy would suffer. At the launch of the report Eddington told journalists and transport industry representatives introducing

road pricing Road pricing (also road user charges) are direct charges levied for the use of roads, including road tolls, distance or time-based fees, congestion charges and charges designed to discourage the use of certain classes of vehicle, fuel sour ...

to encourage drivers to drive less was an "economic no-brainer". There was, he said "no attractive alternative". It would cut congestion by half by 2025, and bring benefits to the British economy totalling £28b. The report also called for a programme of improvements to existing road and rail networks, the expansion of key airports, and adoption of the general principle that travellers should pay for the external costs of the pollution and congestion their journeys cause.

Transport Study in Victoria, Australia

Eddington has since delivered a report to the Victorian Government of Australia, the East West Link Needs Assessment report, which was met with mixed reactions. Economic commentators criticised the cost-benefit ratios of Eddington's proposals, which on Eddington's own analysis were marginal at best.

Honours

Eddington is a Council member of the Royal Institution of Australia. Eddington received a British

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

in 2005 for services to the

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

industr

In 2012 he was appointed an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AO) "for distinguished service to business and commerce through roles with a range of national and international economic, trade, infrastructure development and transport organisations",EDDINGTON, Roderick Ian - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
26 January 2012, It's an Honour and was also elected a

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering There are almost 900 living fellows of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. The post-nominal is FTSE. The following lists many notable living and deceased Fellows. Post-nominal statistics ;Numbers of active/living Fellows i ...

. In 2015 he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

by the

Japanese Government The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...

for his "contribution to strengthening the economic relations between Australia and Japan".

References

External links

*
The Eddington Transport Study at the DfT

Investing in Transport: East West Link Needs Assessment Report to Victorian Government, March 2008.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eddington, Rod 1950 births Living people People from Perth, Western Australia University of Western Australia alumni News Corporation people Australian businesspeople Australian cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in the United Kingdom Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Australian Rhodes Scholars Oxford University cricketers People educated at Christ Church Grammar School People educated at Perth Modern School Australian Knights Bachelor Businesspeople awarded knighthoods Officers of the Order of Australia British Airways people Cricketers from Western Australia Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Chief executives in the airline industry