THE head of lifeline ferry operator CalMac is to take on responsibility for its parent company, David MacBrayne, following the sudden departure of its chief executive.
The state-owned company confirmed that Archie Robertson had stepped down on Friday following a series of bruising showdowns with Government ministers, hours after The Herald reported the story.
A spokesman said Martin Dorchester, the managing director of Caledonian MacBrayne who was appointed four months ago, will take over his boss's duties, though it was not clear whether the promotion would be permanent.
"Martin Dorchester, managing director of CalMac Ferries, has assumed the management responsibility for all of the groups activities," the spokesman said. He refused to say what the terms of the resignation were or how much had been paid in severance arrangements.
Confirmation that Mr Robertson had left came after he was officially described as being on annual leave for several weeks, during which time he missed a number of appointments with Scottish Government ministers.
Peter Timms, chairman of David MacBrayne, said: "On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Archie for his contribution to the business and wish him well for the future."
A spokeswoman for Government agency Transport Scotland spokesperson said: "The employment of the chief executive is an operational matter for the DML Board."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article