Architect of privatisation to the door marked exit

The departure of Colin Marshall marks the end of arguably the most important chapter in the history of British Airways. He was one of the triumvirate who turned BA from a loss-making nationalised carrier into the self-styled "world's favourite airline".

The other two members were BA's former chairman Lord King and its chain-smoking former finance director Gordon Dunlop, who has since died. The three men arrived at BA within months of one another in 1983 and went on to lead the successful privatisation of the airline.

Lord Marshall joined as chief executive from the American car-rental company Avis. He quickly identified BA's biggest problem - it was being run for the benefit of the staff rather than for the customer' convenience.

With his rather starched manner and clipped mid-Atlantic tones, he was never going to be the kind of charismatic leader for whom staff would die in a ditch. But he was awesomely efficient at transforming BA. As Chris Tarry, an independent aviation analyst, says of the original triumvirate: "They made it profitable and they made it privatisable. [Lord] Marshall made BA customer-orientated, Dunlop controlled the finances with a rod of iron and [Lord] King was the great political operator."

Lord Marshall became chairman in 1993, combining the role with that of chief executive, after Lord King stepped down in the aftermath of the Virgin "dirty tricks" scandal. The affair almost cost Lord Marshall his job.

He stepped back from the frontline in 1996, becoming BA's part-time chairman after Bob Ayling's appointment as chief executive, and proceeded to build up a portfolio of company directorships. Despite his charming manner, he was not afraid to wield the axe, dispatching Mr Ayling at BA and helping put the skids under the BT chairman Sir Iain Vallance.