Stewart Wingate

CEO, Gatwick

As boss of Britain's second busiest airport, Stewart Wingate is the man hoping to persuade the government to allow it to grow by building a second runway. Wingate, who was previously chief executive at Budapest Airport and managing director at Stansted, joined Gatwick as CEO in 2009. Since then he has improved security facilities and attracted new airlines to Gatwick, and under his watch the airport's passenger numbers have grown from 32 to 40 million annually. Wingate was born in Bishop Auckland and left school at 16 to work for Black & Decker. The company then offered him the chance to go to university, and he studied at Northumbria and obtained an MBA from Newcastle. He went on to progress rapidly at Black & Decker, working overseas and opening a plant in Frankfurt, before moving into the aviation industry.

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Debrett's 500 2016