City profiles
Philip Meeson
Britons may feel broke, but we’re loving our holidays. And there’s no one flying higher than Jet2, whose Jet2holidays division has leapfrogged Tui to become the country’s “No. 1” tour operator, said The Times. It’s a remarkable feat for founding chairman Philip Meeson – a former RAF pilot and aerobatics stuntman – who started the company as a freight carrier, before applying for a passenger licence 16 years ago. Meeson, 75, is famed for the care he takes of his human cargo: customer service is a key Jet2 proposition. He’s so passionate about delivering that he was once “warned about his behaviour by police after delivering an expletive-laden assessment to check-in staff at Manchester airport”. He felt they’d let the side down.
The departure of Meta’s chief business officer, Marne Levine, after 13 years, means opportunity knocks for Nicola Mendelsohn – the Britishborn advertising exec who now assumes responsibility for handling relationships with the world’s biggest advertisers, says Fortune. After a decade working with Levine, the promotion, she observes, is “bittersweet”. Mendelsohn’s new job spec is decidedly unusual. As well as managing the “largescale partners” of Facebook, Instagram et al, she’s also in charge of “engineering”
– a rejig aimed at bringing “product and business” closer, so the social media giant can respond to feedback faster. At a cutthroat phase of the media cycle, she’s certainly in the hot seat, said The Times. Meta made $116.6bn in sales last year, “of which 97% were derived from adverts”.