My Travel Career: Chris Browne

I started with pretty humble beginnings. I was one of seven – five girls and two boys. I grew up in Strabane, which is notorious because it has been blown up more times than any other town in the western world since the Second World War. It teaches you to value what’s important in life and how to distinguish between what’s right and wrong.

I will always remember my father opening my envelope after I got the 11-plus exam results; he didn’t believe that I had passed. Even the nuns at school were surprised. I thought, “Hang on a second, I’m going to show you.” I think my determination to succeed started around then.

When I started at Iberia, my immediate manager told me women should be pregnant, barefoot and stay in the kitchen. Two years later, I had his job and three years later I had the top job in the company.

Perhaps the next step wasn’t the best career choice that I’ve ever made. The move was from airline into retail. This was at a time when the travel industry was changing dramatically, consolidation was rife and a lot of the tour operators were buying travel agencies.

I couldn’t refuse the chance to go back to my roots when an opportunity came up with First Choice. I spent a few years setting up the distribution side of the business. When I made the move, one of the first things I heard was, “Oh my word, they’re sending a woman to run the airline – what will they think of next?” That was from one of our captains.

Pushing the boundaries of aircraft technology is going to cause you a lot of problems. First Choice was the first to order the 787 Dreamliner back in 2004 and we only took delivery of them in 2013. I was paranoid about being on the first long-haul Dreamliner flight but Andy Murray had just won Wimbledon, so I figured that was a good omen. The flight went well, and when we landed in Cancun customers were kissing me, saying it was fabulous and that it was the best flight they had ever been on.

During the Thomson/First Choice merger, we had 16,000 decisions to make and I’m sad enough to have counted them. We merged the businesses in nine months and we brought in more than £100 million worth of synergies. One of the toughest decisions I had to make was announcing the move from Manchester to Luton, where Thomson was based. I had to stand in front of the Manchester team and tell them that the future was in Luton. There were tears in my eyes, but it showed that I was affected by the changes too.

Leaving Tui was one of the scariest decisions I have ever had to make. By 11am on my first day of unemployment, I had done everything that I needed to do for the week – I thought to myself, “What do normal people do?” Around this time, my current boss, Carolyn, said: “Do you fancy a non-executive position with us?” I jumped at the chance and had a great introduction to the fabulous company that is easyJet.

One thing that struck me when I walked into easyJet was that despite its sheer scale, it still feels small because people are welcoming. This is the beginning of a new chapter and I’m really looking forward to it.

If I was to do it all again, I would say absolute focus is key and strong leadership is fundamental. If you are going to make tough decisions, make them early and stick by them. Make sure you recruit the best people that you can. And remember, no matter how tough it gets, you can navigate your way through choppy waters.