Easyjet chairman Sir Michael Rake has survived a second attempt by the budget airline's founder and largest shareholder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, to remove him from the board.
Haji-Ioannou called an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the company to oust Rake, who is also deputy chairman of Barclays. He needed 50% of the vote to succeed, but Rake won 53.3% of shareholder support.
But according to the Guardian, Haji-Ioannou said: 'This vote does not change the simple fact that Mike Rake was asleep at the Barclays switch when the Libor scandal broke. I hope this sad episode will highlight the need for tougher guidelines on the number of corporate directorships any one person can hold. The current practice of collecting them like boy scout badges - BT, Barclays, McGraw-Hill and easyJet - needs to end.'
Easyjet claimed that if the 37.2% controlled by Haji-Ioannou and his family was removed from the 84.5% of votes cast, only 2.7% of remaining shares were in favour of getting rid of Rake.
Haji-Ioannou is opposed to Rake's position as chairman of Easyjet, saying he has too many other corporate roles. He has also claimed Rake was 'severely compromised' by the recent Libor scandal at Barclays, accusing him of being the 'dog that didn't bark'.
The EGM is Haji-Ioannou's second attempt in six months to depose Rake. In February, 43% of the shareholder base voted against the chairman's re-election at Easyjet's AGM after Haji-Ioannou raised questions over the airline's remuneration policy.
Last month, Easyjet issued a statement welcoming independent advice from proxy advisory services ISS and Glass Lewis recommending that shareholders vote against the resolution to remove Rake. In its report, Glass Lewis questioned whether removing Rake from the board was 'necessary or appropriate' and said it would be 'an unnecessary and unwarranted disruption that would ultimately prove detrimental to the company'.
After the latest vote, Rake, who has been chairman of Easyjet since 2010, said he had not met or spoken to Haji-Ioannou personally since early 2011 despite repeated invitations to sort out their differences behind closed doors.
Rake said: 'We wish to engage in constructive dialogue around the facts, not the hyperbole - most of which by the way is either totally inaccurate factually or has been corrected several times in writing.'
Richard Shackleton, director of communications at Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup, presented the airline's board with a long list questions at the EGM, most of which were to do with Rake's role at Barclays and his ability to devote adequate time to Easyjet.
Shackleton said he had a feeling 'we will be doing this again at some stage soon' if Haji-Ioannou was not satisfied with the responses.
Haji-Ioannou said in a statement after the meeting that all he had got back from the board was the usual 'wishy-washy non-answers'.
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