Another big wig coming back to Australia is Switzerland-based Virgin Australia director David Baxby.
Baxby, a long-time lieutenant of Virgin's global founder Richard Branson, has sat on the airline's board since 2004, when it was the Brett Godfrey-run discount carrier Virgin Blue. He subsequently became global chief executive of Branson's Virgin Group - a conglomerate of licensed branding in travel, telecommunications, credit card and health clubs. 
He left Sydney in 2006, and will be back in the Emerald City by Christmas, having just purchased a house here.
Persistent rumours in the local market keep placing Baxby as an eventual successor to Virgin Australia's chief John Borghetti???, although Branson has little say over such a decision - he now controls only 10 per cent of the registry, eclipsed by Air New Zealand (26 per cent), Etihad (24 per cent) and Singapore Airlines (23 per cent) in a three-way stand-off of magnificent complexity. Two more barriers to this mere possibility: chairman Elizabeth Bryan, and her fellow independent directors, definitely want Borghetti to remain at the helm for another three years. Oh, and Baxby has never run an airline.