Carolyn McCall

Dame Carolyn Julia McCall DBE (born 13 September 1961) is a British businessperson, and the Chief Executive of easyJet.

Born in Bangalore, India, the only child of British immigrants (her Scottish father ran the Far East division of a US textile multinational; her Irish mother worked for the British High Commission in India), she was educated in India and Singapore until her teens, then at a Roman Catholic girls' boarding school in Derbyshire. She studied for a BA degree in history and politics at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where she met her husband Peter (the couple have three children and live in Berkhamsted).

On graduation she began training as a teacher, completing a year at Holland Park School. She then gained a master's degree in politics from the University of London, and subsequently joined construction group Costain. Offered a job on Kevin Kelly's Business magazine, she then applied to be a research planner at The Guardian, which she joined in 1986.

Moving to advertising sales, she was mentored by Caroline Marland. As she rose through the Guardian Media Group behind Marland, Management Today magazine called her "One of the toughest operators to have risen through The Guardian Media Group's ranks." After rising to become CEO of Guardian Newspapers Ltd (now Guardian News & Media Ltd) in August 2006, she became CEO of GMG. During her tenure the Manchester Evening News and regionally based business were sold to Trinity Mirror, and a 49.9% stake in Trader Media Group was sold to Apax Partners, in a deal that valued the business at £1.35bn.

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