Third BAA Black Sheep Departs - Forbes.com

Third BAA Black Sheep Departs - Forbes.com: Managing the finances of a quasi-governmental organization that deals with costly terror alerts is no easy task. Perhaps Margaret Ewing is pleased to be leaving her post as chief financial officer of BAA, Britain's main airport operator. Then again, considering that she reportedly fought tooth and nail to fend off a $18.9 billion hostile takeover bid by Grupo Ferrovial of Spain, her departure is perhaps more sorrowful than sweet.

Ewing is the third top executive at BAA to be replaced by its new owner. Jose Leo, the finance director of the Grupo Ferrovial business services subsidiary Amey, is set to take Ewing's place, though BAA has not been specific on dates. The company's chief executive, Stephen Nelson, said in a statement that Leo would "help us focus upon achieving higher performance." In July Nelson replaced the disgruntled former CEO of BAA, Mike Clasper.

BAA was bought by Ferrovial in a highly leveraged deal, meaning that Leo will now have to navigate through a Mount Everest of debt. Scuttlebutt has had it that the company will be broken up, most likely with a divestiture of its foreign airport ventures in Australia, Italy, and the United States to raise some cash. BAA says it does not want to let go of any of its British operations, which include London's Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted, even though an antitrust investigation by the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading could force asset disposals there.

The company's corporate and regulatory affairs director Ian Hargreaves is the other executive to be leaving the company. He, Ewing and Clasper were reportedly some of the most ardent fighters at BAA against the takeover by Ferrovial.

That's perhaps not surprising for Ewing, who had previously helped merge newspaper titans Trinity and Mirror Group, and had a hand in Vodafone (nyse: VOD - news - people )'s hostile takeover of Mannesman. In an interview last year, she said that in all of her career, the role of top bean counter for BAA had been her highlight. Still, with such a tough financial road ahead, it is hard to imagine that Jose Leo will share a similar sentiment.