Chief of U.K. catering giant killed in plane crash

The chief executive of the world’s biggest catering company, which is also one of Britain’s biggest businesses, died Sunday in a plane crash near Sydney, the Australian police said.

Richard Cousins, the chief executive of Compass Group, was among the six people killed when a seaplane went down off Jerusalem Bay, just north of Sydney, according to a statement from the New South Wales police. Police representatives confirmed that those who died were Cousins, his two sons, his fiancée and her daughter and the pilot of the plane. The cause of the crash was being investigated.

Cousins, 58, led Compass — which employs more than 550,000 people worldwide, providing food for a wide range of organizations including Costco, Qualcomm, the University of Houston and the stadium that houses the Utah Jazz basketball team — for more than 11 years.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this terrible news,” Paul Walsh, the company’s chairman, said in a statement. “It has been a great privilege to know Richard personally and to work with him for the last few years. Richard was known and respected for his great humanity and a no-nonsense style that transformed Compass into one of Britain’s leading companies.”

Police said they were working with officials from Australia’s Transport Safety Bureau, which investigates transport accidents in the country. The Reuters news agency said that a preliminary report was expected within 30 days, but it could take as long as a year to find out what caused the crash.

The flight was part of a trip conducted by Sydney Seaplanes, which has five aircraft transporting passengers on scenic trips above the Australian city, often to waterfront restaurants. It was conducted by an experienced pilot, Gareth Morgan, who had more than 10,000 hours of flight experience, the vast majority of which was on seaplanes, Aaron Shaw, the company’s managing director, said in a statement. Sydney Seaplanes, which said it had not had any safety incidents since it started operating in 2005, has suspended all its operations until further notice.

Cousins had been expected to leave Compass at the end of March. His planned successor as chief executive, Dominic Blakemore, the company’s chief operating officer for Europe, will take over immediately, Compass said.

When Cousins took the helm of the company, it was mired in a corruption scandal, accused of bribing a United Nations official to garner contracts to supply peacekeepers. Settling lawsuits and ending investigations tied to the allegations cost the company 39 million pounds, it said in its 2007 annual report, around $53 million at current exchange rates.

During his time as chief executive, Cousins increased the size of the company. Revenue more than doubled, and operating profit increased fourfold. The company’s share price has increased by more than six times since he took over, to 16 pounds, or about $21.60, a share. Last year, The Harvard Business Review named him the 11th-best performing chief executive in the world.

Compass had full-year revenue of 22.9 billion pounds and profit of 1.7 billion pounds in the most recent financial year.

Compass says it holds 10 percent of the global food services market, operating across 50 countries.