Joe Irvin to join BAA as Public Affairs Director

Joe Irvin, Director of Policy at the Transport and General Workers Union, is to join BAA, the UK airports group, as Director of Public Affairs. He succeeds Stephen Hardwick, who recently took up the new position of Director of Communications at Budapest Airport, which BAA acquired at the end of 2005.

Joe, who is 50, has held a number of senior roles in the TGWU over an 18-year period. Between 1996 and 2001, he was Special Adviser to John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister. In this role, he was closely involved in negotiation of the Kyoto treaty on climate change.

He went on to be Director of the Freedom to Fly Coalition, which successfully brought together 50 organisations to campaign for long-term sustainable growth in the aviation industry. The coalition played an important role in the run up to the 2003 White Paper on Air Transport.

Other previous roles have included stints with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the TUC.

Joe officially joins BAA on 20 March 2006.

See other recent news regarding: BAA, Travel News Asia