Virgin Australia director Joshua Bayliss steps down

The Virgin Group’s representative on the Virgin Australia board Joshua Bayliss has stepped down from the airline’s board after almost four and a half years as a director.

Virgin Australia said on Wednesday Bayliss has been replaced as the Virgin Group’s representative by John Patrick Moorhead, who is chief financial officer at the Virgin Group and had been Bayliss’s alternate director before his appointment. Moorhead was also previously a board member at Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Rail, among other Virgin Group companies.

The change was effective from Tuesday, September 22. No reason was given for the Bayliss stepping down.

Bayliss, the chief executive of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, was appointed to the Virgin Australia board in April 2011 and was a member of the nomination committee.

The Virgin Group owns about 10 per cent of Virgin Australia stock and is one of four major shareholders alongside Air New Zealand, Etihad Airways and Singapore Airlines that hold a combined 82 per cent of the airline.

Sir Richard told media on a recent trip to Australia his Virgin Group had no current plans to sell 10 per cent stake in the airline.

“I think everybody knows we are not interested in selling,” Sir Richard told the Australian Financial Review on September 8.