City profiles

Michael O’leary “As seasons pass with barely a penny-pinching stunt, it’s tempting to conclude that Michael O’leary’s heart is just not in it any more,” said The Observer. But “the unfriendly face of Ryanair” has signed up for another five years at Europe’s largest no-frills carrier – though he will step back from daily ops to run a new holding company similar to that of British Airways’ parent, IAG. The Ryanair brand may have softened, but its abrasive boss remains as contentious as ever, said the FT. Pilot unions are up in arms about a new share option plan that could give O’leary, 57, a s99m “windfall”. Shareholders aren’t happy either, claiming that O’leary’s bonus targets have been set ludicrously low. Royal London called the option “wholly inappropriate”.

David Malpass

Donald Trump’s pick for the next World Bank president is proving controversial, said Tom Espiner on BBC Business. A “Trump loyalist” and senior economic adviser to Trump during his 2016 presidential election campaign, Malpass has criticised the World Bank for being “intrusive” and “entrenched” – and has also pushed for it “to halt lending to China”. A former chief economist at Bear Stearns before the bank’s nearcollapse in 2008, Malpass, 62, is renowned for the insouciance he showed in the teeth of the impending crisis. “Housing and debt markets are not that big a part of the US economy,” he wrote in August 2007, urging investors not to panic. His World Bank appointment is by no means in the bag. As one critic contends, “there are many better candidates”.