Openly gay CEO of Qantas Airlines attacked
The CEO of Australia’s Qantas Airlines, Alan Joyce, who also happens to be gay, was the victim of a nasty cream pie attack.
The chief executive and strong public supporter of same sex marriage was delivering a speech to 500 people at a business breakfast in Perth this week. That’s when a man quietly walked up to 50-year-old business leader and smashed a pie in his face.
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The attacker was Tony Overheu, a senior member of the Church of Christ in the southern Perth suburb of Willetton. He once ran a failed campaign for Senate. Overheu was detained by security until the the cops arrived. It is our understanding he is currently in custody.
Mr. Joyce, who was talking about the global carrier’s new non-stop services from London to Perth, tried to make light of the situation in the moment.
“I don’t know what that was about,” he told the audience. “Now, if there are any more pies can you get it over with now.”
After the attack, he left the stage for a few minutes to clean himself up. A little bit later, he came and finished his speech. The entire room greeted him with huge applause.
“When you’ve been CEO of an airline for nine years, there’s a lot of things that have happened over that period of time,” he said. “This is different, this is certainly an unusual event, but things like this have happened in the past.”
Making sure not to skip a beat, he added that he wasn’t able to taste the pie, so he wasn’t sure what flavor it was.
“It was mostly on my glasses,” he said. “My issue is I need a good dry cleaner before I leave Perth, so if you have one, please recommend it.”
h/t: Queerty
