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David Wilson Boyd Burnside (born 24 August 1951) is a Northern Ireland politician, and was Ulster Unionist Party Member of Parliament for South Antrim. In the 1970s Burnside served as Press Officer for the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party, and he unsuccessfully contested North Antrim for the party at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1973.〔() 〕 After the collapse of Vanguard he joined the Ulster Unionists, but took a back seat from politics for many years while working as a prominent public relations consultant based in London which led him to set up his own PR company.〔http://dbapr.co.uk/_wsn/page2.html〕He also served in the Ulster Defence Regiment.〔(David Burnside Profile ) ''BBC Politics''〕 ==British Airways== In 1984 David Burnside was recruited by the British Airways Chairman Lord King to become the company's head of public relations. In this role Burnside is widely acknowledged to have become one of the most powerful PR men in Britain, speaking for King, administering a £5,000,000 budget and receiving numerous PR awards both in the UK and around the world. His success is perhaps overshadowed by the nature of his departure. British Airways was witnessing the emergence of a potentially strong rival, Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic. Virgin, which began with one route and one Boeing 747 in 1984 was beginning to emerge as a serious threat on some of BA's most lucrative routes. Following Virgin's highly publicized mission of mercy to Iraq to fly home hostages who had been held by Saddam Hussein in 1991, Lord King is reported to have told Burnside and CEO Colin Marshall to "do something about Branson". This began the campaign of "dirty tricks", masterminded by Burnside, which ended in Branson suing King and British Airways for libel in 1992. King countersued Branson and the case went to trial in 1993. British Airways, faced with likely defeat, settled the case giving £500,000 to Branson and a further £110,000 to his airline; further, BA was to pay the legal fees of up to £3,000,000. Tom Bower's biography of Virgin's chief, ''Branson'', published in 2000 gives a rather different perspective on this matter. It was an article written by Burnside (given legal clearance) in ''BA News'', the company's in house newsletter, that prompted Branson's legal action. In January 1993, following the settlement and investigations by BA's lawyers the board decided to sack Burnside. He was awarded a settlement of approximately £400,000 and free first class travel on BA for four years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「David Burnside」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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