‘In Uganda, the personal touch is deeply valued and integral to business success. In Ireland we might have lost a bit of that’Dubliner Declan Peppard joined British Airways from school as a reservation sales agent back in 1983 on the princely salary of IR£6,400 a year. It was a modest start to what blossomed into a fruitful 20-year career with the airline that saw Peppard appointed to senior management positions in Zimbabwe, Uganda and Brazil.
Peppard attributes his peripatetic career to the fact that, in his early 20s, he became part of BA’s overseas pool, which was a small group of employees who provided cover at BA operations around the world. “This was 1989 when BA still had many expat country managers and airport managers on the payroll and we covered when they were on leave or there was a crisis,” says Peppard.
“Thankfully this generated enough income to tide us over with no lay-offs but when it happened, I thought, jeepers we’re really in trouble now,” says Peppard, who has a family of four girls including twins at college in the UK and daughters working in Dublin and Harare. The people here are genuinely good-natured and extremely friendly. We are free of violent crime and I have never felt threatened or at risk, even during elections
Despite being a big fan of the “perfect Ugandan climate, which never gets too hot and is never cold”, Peppard misses the changing seasons and the crisp autumn air that marks the passage of time back home.