The owner of British Airways is facing criticism for not having enough board-level IT expertise after a computer glitch disrupted the journeys of about 75,000 passengers and cost the company an estimated £150 million.
Glass Lewis, an influential shareholder advisory group, said that the board of International Airlines Group, which owns Iberia and Aer Lingus as well as BA, needed to add more non-executives with specialist IT knowledge, according to reports.
“We believe the board should con-sider bolstering the IT experience of its non-executive cohort, particularly in light of the fact that . . . only one of the currently serving non-executive directors has IT experience,” Glass Lewis warned before the company’s annual meeting next week. The group also highlighted criticism of Bill Francis, IAG’s global head of IT, for his lack of experience.
The comments reflect a growing frustration that many companies have boards made up of directors who are too old and out of date to understand advanced information technology. “Those over 50 probably never studied IT and most will never have gone on to learn what it really is,” one expert said.
Roger Rawlinson, managing director of NCC, a cybersecurity company, said that there was a lack of awareness at board level of how to prevent cyberattacks and what to do once they occur.
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“A lot of boards simply haven’t thought it through,” he said. “BA is not the only company to have problems with technology. When it does go wrong, you need to be on top of it.”
BA has said that the IT shutdown was caused by an “internal” power surge. IAG declined to comment.