24th May 2006 07:02
National Express Group PLC24 May 2006 Wednesday 24 May 2006 National Express Group PLC ("the Group") Annual General Meeting Trading Update and appointment of new Chief Executive At the National Express Group ("the Group") Annual General Meeting held thismorning, Chairman, David Ross, made the following comments on the company'strading performance and announced the appointment of Richard Bowker as GroupChief Executive with effect from early September. Richard will succeed PhilWhite, whose planned retirement from the Group was announced at the company'spreliminary results presentation in March. Commenting on current trading, David said; "I am pleased to report that current trading across the Group is in line withour expectations. Alsa is trading well and its integration into the Group is onschedule. Our train companies continue to take the lead in the latest railpunctuality league tables and we are focused on bidding for those trainfranchises where we are the incumbent operator. Our North American operationsexperienced a very good bid season and our UK bus and coach operations continuedto perform well. Looking forward, we continue to monitor the cost of fuel and will mitigate itseffect where practicable. The Board remains confident of the Group's futureprospects." Commenting on Richard Bowker's appointment, David said; "At the announcement of the preliminary results in March, we announced that PhilWhite would be retiring from the Board at the end of the year. Today we aredelighted to announce the appointment of Richard Bowker as Chief Executive ofthe Group. He is an outstanding individual with a great track record ofleadership and achievement in both public and private sectors. I believe he iswell placed to take the Group forward to the next stage of its growth. I lookforward to working with Richard. I would like to take this opportunity to thankPhil on behalf of the Board for his commitment and contribution to the Groupover the past ten years." - ENDS - Notes to Editors: Richard, aged 40, is a qualified chartered management accountant, starting hisbusiness career at London Underground where he specialised in innovativeprocurement techniques, commercial development and private finance initiativeand public private partnerships and structures. Between December 2001 andSeptember 2004, he was Chair and Chief Executive of the Strategic Rail Authoritywhere he led the UK rail industry through the successful delivery of the multibillion pound West Coast Main Line Route Modernisation and the establishment ofstability and clarity in the public private partnership with the trainoperators. Richard was formerly commercial director of Virgin Group andco-chairman of Virgin Rail. In August 2005 he was appointed Chief Executive ofthe Partnerships for Schools ("PfS"), a government body responsible fordelivering the Building Schools for the Future investment programme. For further information, please contact: Nicola Marsden/Georgina ParkesNational Express Group PLC 020 7529 2000 Andrew Dowler/Ben FosterFinancial Dynamics 020 7831 3113 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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