Barbara Cassani piloted Go to profitability

When former British Airways boss Bob Ayling decided in 1997 to launch a no-frills subsidiary in response to growing competition from Ryanair and Easyjet, he appointed Ms Cassani, then a leading figure in BA's sales department, to run it.

Under Ms Cassani, the budget airline, Go, became one of the travel industry's biggest success stories in recent years, notching up several years of double-digit growth and reaching profitability far sooner than expected.

When BA decided to cash in on its investment by selling the no-frills carrier two years ago, Ms Cassani, eager to maintain its independence, won plaudits from the City by engineering a �110m management buyout.

High-flier

Having emerged from BA's shadow, Ms Cassani rose to prominence as one of very few women to run a major British company, although she consistently played down the challenges that she had faced.

"I've worked in meritocratic companies where you're judged on your results, not on how you look or what your sex is. I've obviously been lucky," she told BBC 2's Newsnight programme in December 2001.

The following year, Ms Cassani won the prestigious Veuve Clicquot businesswoman of the year award, joining an elite roster of previous winners including Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino and Anita Roddick of the Body Shop.

But she crashed back to earth shortly afterwards when Go was snapped up by arch-rival Easyjet, in a �400m takeover which saw the Go brand disappear, and left Ms Cassani herself without a job.

New beginning

She is reported to have pocketed a cool �16m from the deal, but was also said to have been frustrated at losing control over a business that she had built up painstakingly over five years.

The takeover proved acrimonious, with Ms Cassani furiously denying suggestions from the Easyjet camp that she had in fact been offered the number two job in the combined company.

Her appointment as the head of London's Olympic bid, on an annual salary of about �200,000, marks the start of a third phase in the 42-year-old's career.

Before joining BA in 1986, the Boston-born business chief studied at Princeton University, and worked for a number of years for the management consultant group Coopers & Lybrand in Washington.