Stagecoach finance director put in the driving seat as chief executive resigns
Stagecoach group finance director Keith Cochrane is set to take the wheel at the troubled group following the resignation of chief executive Mike Kinski this week.
Founder chairman of the group, accountant Brian Souter, is also set to retake the wheel, a move which analysts predict may be an attempt to retake control of the group.
Cochrane is credited with the lucrative financing for the Porterbrook train leasing subsidiary. He joined Stagecoach seven years ago from Arthur Andersen and has been FD since 1996.Souter handed day-to-day management to Kinski two years ago to focus on acquisitions.
Kinski has been reported in some sections of the press to have quit in a row over Souter’s backing of the section 28 law which prohibits the promotion of homosexuality in schools.
But Christian Wolmar, author of ‘Stagecoach’ the unofficial biography, said section 28 was not behind the resignation.
Also leaving the group is the boss of Coach USA, Larry King who chaired the company after the takeover last year and joined the main board of Stagecoach.
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