Rolls-Royce said Chief Executive Warren East would leave at the end of 2022 as the company swung to an annual operating profit and published an upbeat outlook.
Operating profit for the year to the end of December was £513m compared with a loss of £1.97bn a year earlier as revenue dipped to £11.22bn from £11.49bn. Rolls’s pretax loss shrank to £294m from £2.8bn.
“The positive momentum we are generating gives us confidence both in our expectations for 2022 and our future growth,” East said.
East will leave after leading the engine maker for eight years during the most turbulent period in the company’s history. He took over after a series of profit warnings and directed Rolls through the aviation industry’s greatest crisis during the pandemic.
Anita Frew, Rolls’s chair, said: “Warren has led Rolls-Royce to a point where we have substantially delivered on our recent commitments to investors and are now firmly set on the path to a more prosperous and sustainable future.”
