The most recent articles from Accountancy Age

Profile: Andrew Higginson, CEO of Tesco Personal Finance

Melanie Stern — 2008-11-27T19:10:00.000Z

Melanie Stern, Accountancy Age, Thursday 27 November 2008 at 19:10:00

He’s spent more than a decade at the top of the Tesco Finance tree – but it doesn’t stop there for Andrew Higginson. He tells Melanie Stern about adding a CEO role to his portfolio

Not content with running the finances behind the UK’s number one supermarket, Andy Higginson is currently engaged in not one, but three jobs. This year marks his eleventh year as group finance and strategy director for Tesco and his tenth year as chairman of Tesco Personal Finance (TPF). But he is only into his first one hundred days as chief executive officer of Tesco Retailing Services.

And he’s doing it all with a hangover on the morning after a group-wide office party the company holds every couple of years, when we meet him at Tesco’s Cheshunt headquarters.

Must have been a good bash: Tesco’s interim results showed that in the year of the credit crunch, the grocer notched up an 11.3% increase in pre-tax profits to £1.4bn, on sales of £25.6bn, up 13.8%, in the 26 heady weeks to late August.

Analysts overwhelmingly rated Tesco stock a buy or hold, a rare haven in a market all but officially certified insane since late summer.

Higginson’s latest job is a newly-created one heading up a newly-created business unit, so there is no in-tray awaiting inheritance. And despite announcing his move to the role in July, the board has only just briefed headhunters in the search for a successor to the FD throne (there are a handful of internal hopefuls, too). But he’s itching to get stuck in.

‘I’m trying to do both my old job and the new job at the moment, which is not ideal and, of course, the FD job is pretty busy right now with everything that’s going on in the financial markets,’ says Higginson. ‘But from my point of view the sooner they sort it the better, because I am quite enthusiastic about the new job.’

At any rate, the job can’t really be gotten on with in earnest until Tesco receives the Financial Services Authority’s approval for its £950m buyout of Royal Bank of Scotland’s 50% stake in TPF, which encompasses its internet business and its telecoms activities, as well as a platter of loans, insurance offerings, savings accounts and a credit card. Higginson wants to add mortgages and a current account to that arsenal.

The FSA verdict should be in shortly, Higginson hopes. This deal will form the backbone of the retailing services strategy - broadly, to be as strong in non-food as the group is in food, the former deemed the key driver of Tesco’s future growth.

The timing of the RBS buyout compared to the subsequent near-collapse of most of the UK’s retail banks raises an eyebrow. Time needed to set up the relevant processes and systems notwithstanding, the current environment could hardly be better for the launch of Tesco Bank: not only have consumers lost faith in the incumbent system, many of Tesco’s would-be high street rivals are now at their weakest. There could be a lot of valuable debris for Higginson to sweep up over the coming months and years from the mess the UK banking system is in, and Tesco has the brand recognition, geographical coverage and trusting consumer relationship to turn that into profit.

Was it serendipity or insider knowledge that precipitated the deal? ‘We certainly weren’t suspecting the market conditions we’re seeing now when we decided on the purchase,’ rebuffs Higginson.

‘With the benefit of hindsight, I can see now that RBS was thinking about the need to raise some cash, and their price aspirations were quite different to ours. But the original idea [CEO] Terry [Leahy] and I had was just to grow the business in the way it had not done for about three years.

‘The conversation we had in early 2007 was how to kick-start it. We thought TPF had to become more important to either RBS or us - but as it had our name over the door it probably had to be us because we weren’t willing to give our brand to anyone else.’

Double whammy

Higginson’s ambitious two-pronged mandate is to create a full-service, retail bank to rival the high street and, in doing so, drive TPF’s existing £400m profits to £1bn annually. To put that in context, group operating profit for the year ended February 2008 was £2.8bn; he expects 2008-09 full-year profits of ‘anything up to £3bn’.

At present, TPF has around five million customer accounts, but Tesco has 14 million Clubcard members (‘active users’ as they call them) and detailed data on the spending habits of every one, which gives Higginson an untapped - and, even better, captive - market to which he can roll-out a financial products platter behind one of the UK’s best known brands. ‘The truth is we have a collection of individual products at the moment, a lot of one-year products like car insurance and there is no real stickiness to these transactions. A Tesco current account would be a way for us to build a true relationship with our customers. It’s a terrific opportunity.’

It’s no surprise to hear Higginson is juggling three titles, given his propensity for mucking in: if anyone was looking for the ‘x’ factor that made him the man for one of the UK’s meatiest FD jobs, it must be his attitude to being operationally and commercially aware. It was also a key element in winning the Accountancy Age outstanding industry contribution award in 2006. His 18 years as a UK plc FD, first with Laura Ashley, Burton Group and then Tesco, have put him at the centre of everything from international business to acquisitions, bank covenant defaults and crisis management. It’s not a bad turnout for a Lancashire lad with a 2:1 in town and country planning from Birmingham Polytechnic - and who seems distinctly turned off by the whole idea of being an accountant.

Aspirations fulfilled

‘I’ve served my time,’ he quips when asked if his new role signals a permanent goodbye to the finance function. ‘My aspirations were always to move into general management and I’ve gradually done that at Tesco, so this is a chance to go full-time into building a really good business. It’s a portfolio role and I’ve got this very talented team, so I’m very excited.

‘I never had an interest in pure accounting - it was just a means to an end really. My aim was to be involved in running a business, and my view as a student was, “Those accountants seem pretty involved so why don’t I do that?” I never worked in the profession because I never wanted to be an accountant. I wanted a job in business and finance was my route in,’ he says.

‘My internal debate when I was offered the Tesco job was not “Do I want to be FD of Tesco, or do I want to be FD of Burton Group?” - that was obvious because Tesco is massive in comparison. The debate was whether I wanted another FD job at all. Did I not want to look around for a chief executive role?’ he recalls asking himself after four years with the then-listed fashion retailer. But Terry persuaded me at the time that he could fulfil those aspirations at Tesco. I’m very glad he did because I’ve loved every minute of it.’

It’s a great time to be taking on a CEO job of this kind in the UK grocery market. Few of the numbers Tesco has reported in the past 12 months have pointed south and CEO Leahy has adopted the mantra that ‘Tesco is at its best in tough markets’. Well, he would say that. But he could be proven irritatingly right in the next 12 to 24 months as Higginson takes the helm at TPF, if he can take advantage of the opportunities likely to be afforded by the failing UK retail banking sector and leverage the deep knowledge he brings from the FD role in going head-to-head with well-established banking brands at the rival grocers (only Morrisons remains outside this business line, save for its credit card product).

Higginson believes the current consolidation and nationalisation of banks in the UK will create a clutch of behemoths that will not be able to resist the temptation to squeeze margins upwards and Tesco will cash in simply by branding itself as a traditional cautious bank, ‘well-run, trusted’ - ah, those quaint, vintage concepts.

‘I can’t think of a better time to do it, really,’ he says. ‘Building a business is going to be the most exciting part. The technical aspects of learning about banking is something I will have to do, as I did with IFRS or pensions, for example, because I am not a technical accountant - but the exciting stuff is learning how to connect with customers, how to use the fact that they trust Tesco to persuade them to think of us in financial services... and figuring out how we can make money from it.

‘How can we offer these services without blowing our brains out on margins?’

The effectiveness of Higginson and Leahy as a double act, whether you view Tesco as an evil capitalist mothership with unbridled power over shoppers and regulators alike, or as a triumph of Britain’s canniest business talent, is history. Should we be taking bets on how long it will be until we hear that Higginson has bumped Sir Terry out of the hotseat? ‘No, I don’t think so,’ he says after a pause. ‘Terry’s still got loads of energy and he’s one of those exceptional leaders you get once in a generation. He is younger than he looks, you know.’

Perhaps that’s a tad premature. For now Higginson just wants to warm his own seat. ‘The thing that really excites me about the job is, at my age, with all my experience, I’m still young enough to have a fair bit of energy, but I’m old enough to have loads of experience. I’m the most potent as a businessman than I have been; I can make a difference. Now just seems a natural time for me to step up.’

Past its sell-by date

Tesco’s Andrew Higginson thinks the beancounter analogy is well past its sell-by date. ‘I don’t believe in the idea of the plain vanilla FD job; a pure finance role is pretty unusual these days,’ he says. ‘Some people are more technical, but I am more commercial and I see myself as just another member of the board who happens to come from the finance side.’

He adds that his career was always rooted in real business - first as a graduate trainee auditor at Unilever in 1980, where his department was referred to by everyone else as ‘commercial’ - followed by a stint as a commercial manager for Lever Brothers in Hong Kong. Moving to Tesco 11 years later, he recalls joining Leahy, who was appointed Tesco chief executive a fortnight before Higginson joined, and former deputy chairman David Reed to make an informal ‘strategy committee’ - but when Reed retired in 2004 and went non-executive, Higginson absorbed his role on that informal committee, giving him even more non-finance strategy scope.

Check out the award

Higginson scooped the Accountancy Age 2006 award for outstanding industry contribution.

Asked at the time how Tesco and its FD stay ahead of the competition, he said: ‘We stay paranoid! We have to assume that they’re all out to get us, so we try to do a bit better than all of them. I don’t mean to sound glib, but I think our motto, “every little helps”, is the best way to explain it.

‘There’s no eureka factor. We work on much the same economics as everyone else in this business in terms of land, labour and logistics costs, and we’re all selling the same gear. What we do is add a little bit extra: things such as making parking a bit simpler, making sure that our prices are a bit lower and the queues are a bit shorter.

All these things combine to create the right kind of shopping experience. This is how we will continue to differentiate ourselves from the competition.’

Curriculum vitae

Name: Andrew Higginson

Age: 50

Qualification: FCMA

Chairmanships: Tesco Personal Finance

Non-executive, independent directorships: BskyB

Member of The Hundred Group of Finance Directors

Career

1997- Group finance and strategy director, Tesco plc

1994-97 Group finance director, The Burton Group plc

1990-94 Finance director, Laura Ashley Holdings plc

1987-90 Finance director, Guinness Brewing International

1986-87 Controller, Guinness Overseas (Brewing) Ltd

1984-86 Commercial manager, Lever Brothers China Ltd

1980-84 Internal Auditor, UCMDS Graduate Entry Scheme, Unilever plc

Grant Thornton wields redundancy axe

David Jetuah — 2008-11-27T11:30:00.000Z

David Jetuah, Accountancy Age, Thursday 27 November 2008 at 11:30:00

Grant Thorton staff face a bleak Christmas as the economic downturn begins to hit the profession

Grant Thornton is planning to cut 225 jobs, around 5% of its workforce, in response to an expected slowdown in growth at the mid-tier accounting firm next year.

Most of the staff affected, including a number of partners, were told their jobs were at risk earlier this month, a Grant Thornton spokesman told Accountancy Age.

'As with most of our competitors, Big Four and beyond, we have been conducting a review of our business across all business units,' he said. 'We looked at the fee income for next year and tried to match that with the number of staff.'

There are no further cuts planned at the moment he added, despite the uncertain economic conditions which are set to carry on deep into 2009.

The planned job cuts are the biggest to be openly announced by a leading firm. In May KPMG shed around 90 staff from its corporate finance and transaction service teams in one of the first signs that the credit crunch was hitting the profession.

The Grant Thornton spokesman added that it is trying to offer affected staff secondments or the chance to take a career break.

However, staff who are judged not to be suitable for redeployment will face redundancy.

Fannie Mae appoints third FD this year

AccountancyAge.com — 2008-11-27T11:29:00.000Z

AccountancyAge.com, Accountancy Age, Thursday 27 November 2008 at 11:29:00

Fannie Mae, the US mortgage giant that was recently bailed out by the US government, has appointed its third finance director this year.

Fannie Mae, the US mortgage giant that was recently bailed out by the US government, has appointed its third finance director this year.

David Johnson will serve the company's executive vice president and CFO, effective immediately.

Johnson will serve in a broadened role as chief financial officer, the company said. In August, Stephen Swad left the company, and was replaced by David Hisey, who had been Fannie's senior vice president and controller.

Johnson was previously executive vice president and finance chief at Hartford Financial Services Group, a company he joined in 2001 and resigned from earlier this year. Prior to Hartford, he had been CFO at Cendant Corp., which he had helped take public earlier in his career, when he was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch.

Read the full story:

Fannie Mae Taps CFO: Former Hartford Finance Chief David Johnson

New Northern Foods FD spends 100k on shares

Kevin Reed — 2008-11-24T10:00:00.000Z

Kevin Reed, Accountancy Age, Monday 24 November 2008 at 10:00:00

New FD Booker invests in Northern Foods

The new finance chief of Northern Foods has bought £100,000 of shares in the business.

Andrew Booker purchased 200,000 chares at 53.69p, a month into his tenure as group FD after replacing Jez Maiden.

The Goodfella's Pizza and MacDougall's pastry owner recently announced a 6.8% rise in interim revenues to £468.6m to 27 September.

However profit before tax fell to £16.9 million compared to £20.1m a year earlier, impacted by currency and pension credit changes; and investment in its brands.

Northern Foods chief executive Stefan Barden said recent changes at the company had made it 'much stronger'.

'Over the past two years we have created a better balanced and more resilient business, which is making good progress despite these tough market conditions,' said Barden.

Further reading:

Hilco agrees to take on £35m more of Woolworths debt

Madonna & Guy Ritchie divorce to buck payout trend

Rachael Singh — 2008-11-21T11:45:00.000Z

Rachael Singh, Accountancy Age, Friday 21 November 2008 at 11:45:00

Madonna's fortune remains untouched by Ritchie as both shy away from financial demands

The High Court has granted Madonna Ciccone and Guy Ritchie a divorce after eight years of marriage.

Although initial press reports speculated that Guy Ritchie could receive millions in a divorce settlement, the film maker is rumoured to be bucking the trend and walking away without a penny of Madonna's fortune.

The couple reportedly called in celebrity accountants MGR to decipher which assets are jointed and separately owned as no pre-nuptial agreement was signed. The accountancy firm had to calculate assets which included the couples £7m house in London as well as one they jointly owned in the country.

Ritchie is estimated to have assets of approximately £30m while Ciccone is worth in excess of £300m.

The couple who were granted the divorce this week has also decided to split custody of their two children with Ciccone's having full custody of her daughter from an earlier partnership.

MGR list other clients such as Emma Thompson, the sugarbabes and John Cleese who is currently in the midst of a messy divorce from third wife Alyce Faye Eichelberger.

Both parties were not present when the ruling was made.

Further reading:

Madonna calls in accountants as divorce prep continues

Overview: Old Mutual's new FD

Nick Huber — 2008-11-20T17:34:00.000Z

Nick Huber, Accountancy Age, Thursday 20 November 2008 at 17:34:00

Prospects: Philip Broadley’s appointment as FD will boost Old Mutual

Old Mutual has had an awful year a year, but the appointment of new FD Philip Broadley earlier this month pleased the market and helped provide a temporary boost to the Anglo-South African insurer’s share price.

Shares in the FTSE 100 company have fallen by about two-thirds since the beginning of the year, weighed down by concerns over bad debts at its US business.

What's happened?

In September, its chief executive, Jim Sutcliffe, resigned. Meanwhile, the company has announced around $135m (£77m) in writedowns after a sharp fall in preference shares in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after the US government effectively nationalised the mortgage giants.

Broadley – a former chairman of the Hundred Group of Finance Directors and FD of insurer Prudential – is well-respected and seen as a safe pair of hands at a turbulent time for the insurance industry, which has been hit hard by the credit crunch and global economic slowdown.

He replaces Jonathan Nicholls who stepped down ‘to pursue interests outside the life insurance sector’, according to Old Mutual.

What's going to happen?

Founded in South Africa in 1845, Old Mutual is under pressure to consider selling parts of its business to simplify its complex structure, leaving Broadley little time to ease himself into his new role. There is also speculation that Old Mutual may be broken up and sold.

The company, whose services include asset management, life assurance, banking and general insurance services, has said that it hopes to sell Mutual & Federal, its South African general insurer, by the end of the year.

One analyst, who asked not to be named, said: ‘If [bond] defaults pick up Broadley will have to make some tough decisions. Does he have the capacity to inject some more capital into the business or does he try to sell off parts of the business?’

He added: ‘Part of the business is in emerging markets and part of it is in developed markets. That doesn’t appeal to investors. It’s neither fish nor fowl.’

One analyst described Broadley as softly spoken, determined and authoritative. ‘He’s a safe pair of hands and in an industry that’s complex he gives the impression that knows exactly what he’s talking about.’

Broadley will need all his powers of persuasion in his new job.

Profile: Ted Bell, FD of Abel and Cole

Alex Hawkes — 2008-11-20T17:11:00.000Z

Alex Hawkes, Accountancy Age, Thursday 20 November 2008 at 17:11:00

The combination of the online shopping boom and a hunger for organic products has seen Abel and Cole grow at an impressive rate. FD Ted bell tells our reporter about running a big business with a small business ethic

There’s an astonishing number in the accounts of Abel & Cole, the fruit and veg box delivery company. For the year to 31August, 2007, the company had all of just one member of staff working in sales.

Finance director Ted Bell doesn’t seem so surprised. ‘Yes, it was just one person. [Selling the product] was like turning a tap on. The challenge up until about 18 months ago was about handling the growth.’

Despite its familiarity to Bell, it is, to an outsider, a big surprise. A company that turns over more than £30m, distributing organic food, veg and drinks, effectively selling themselves. If you’ve ever received one of its leaflets, you’ll know the deal: starting at £9.95 a week, you get a box of seasonal fruit and veg delivered to your door.

The core product (the company does far more than just fruit and veg boxes these days) has been a phenomenal success.

In 2000, it turned over around £1m. Its founder, Keith Abel had laboured away on the business since the 1970s. In 2004 it moved up to £3.6m, doubling in 2005 and again in 2006. Last year’s numbers showed a turnover of £27.9m and 2008’s will show growth again.

Private equity group Phoenix Equity Partners bought into that growth story last year when they took a stake, valuing the business at a reported £30m-£40m.

The reasons for the growth are not difficult to guess at, either.

‘There’s been a big explosion in organic food. At the same time, online shopping has grown very strongly,’ Bell sums up simply.

Organic - or rather what Bell terms ‘artisanal’ food - has become hugely popular, and the internet has made Abel & Cole’s business model almost uniquely well-placed to take advantage.

In the current straitened circumstances, the company’s story is an unusually positive one.

What’s more, there are plans to put 25% more in the boxes (at no extra cost) later this year; the company has diversified into other areas of artisanal food – a whole range of tantalising delicacies that, like the fruit and veg boxes, probably sell themselves.

But all is not entirely rosy: there are risks on the horizon.

‘There’s no doubt that people are cutting their cloth, we need to be very alive to that. We have the benefit of being in a good sector – people have to eat. But what premium are they prepared to pay for their food? It’s about ensuring our value proposition is right,’ he says.

A management trainee at Unilever, Bell learned his trade as the brand manager for Dove Soap. But he found the faceless bureaucracy of the consumer goods giant not to his taste and moved on and in to private equity.

He joined 3i in Southampton, and after working for them for five years moved to Close Brothers. But he really wanted to run a business, and with returns in private equity dwindling and the fact that ‘we weren’t getting as close to the businesses as we used to,’ he moved on again after meeting a headhunter who put him in touch with Abel & Cole.

There’s no doubt that Bell believes in the business, and the company is every inch what you would expect. It does everything it can to avoid turning on the air conditioning (the interview beginning, as a result, in sweltering greenhouse heat on a cool autumn day). Employees are relaxed, helpful and engaging.

The office has a ‘lunch club’ where all employees who want to can sit together and eat. It used to be the employees who cooked – Bell had to hold off talks with the private equity buyers last year to put the finishing touches to his mushroom risotto – but it became too time-consuming for them. All in all, it looks like a good place to be.

Critical response

Not everyone is happy, though, with the recent direction of the business. One online critic objects to the new owners. ‘I bought from them not just because I wanted a regular supply of organic produce, I also want to support green, ethical businesses. Now they’ve taken the capitalist’s shilling, who knows what will go on behind closed van doors. A big shame!,’ says ‘crustee’ on ciao.co.uk.

The criticism undoubtedly plays on the minds of those who run Abel & Cole today. After all, with the turnover it’s boasting, this is hardly your friendly local retailer any more, is it? ‘We must never allow ourselves to be at all corporate or supermarket-like in any way. If you were to come to our supplier day it would still feel [the same as ever].

‘Our customers still very much see we are a conduit, a way people can source produce from somewhere lovely in the UK: batches of houmous put together in a kitchen in Bath; the man who milks his cows to the sound of Radio Two. That’s not big business.’

But he freely admits that in terms of managing the company’s back office, he is quite happy for it to be ‘corporate’.

‘If being good at [finance, customer services, etc] is corporate we will be that. But at the front end we have to remain artisanal. That’s about how we talk to our customers, our farmers, growers, etc.’

Equally, it’s worth a bit of perspective. Founder Keith Abel has said, and Bell echoes the message, that the company is, even at the size it is at today, only as large as your local Tesco Metro in turnover terms.

And perhaps some proof that this is not really big business is its commitment to cutting edge ethical and environmental information. Last year it conducted an ethical audit, and it is now pondering carrying out an audit of its carbon footprint.

‘We want to ensure that the environment is looked after, people within the business are looked after. So we were looking across all those stakeholders, how we are performing, looking at our value system. I have seen how farmers are treated by our supermarkets, they come to us because of our ethics,’ Bell says. He is full of praise for the project because, he says, it enables the company to understand whether it is living up to its own words, and also measure and improve where it is falling down.

‘We’ve reduced packaging on individual products. It helped us realise we are right in claiming what we do and helped set targets.’

Carbon audit

The carbon footprint audit would take that a step further. ‘We’re deciding whether to commit to it. We want to make sure everything we do we are upper quartile, better than anyone else in one thing in particular. And that we’re better than supermarkets on every single front.’

The company’s delivery vans sound like the most carbon intensive element of the operation. Bell mentions they are trying to use bio-diesel, and have been running a van on chip fat. But it’s not entirely successful – three have blown up so far.

Abel & Cole seems like the kind of business David Cameron’s Tories, and even Gordon Brown, might like to cosy up to: a socially responsible enterprise interested in making money, but only in the right way. So what does Bell think politicians could do for him?

He is fairly dismissive of the politics: ‘Change comes about by people like us making change happen and working with consumers to ensure that change come about, not by someone with an office in Whitehall pontificating about grand visions.’ Having said that, he adds that he would ‘welcome any further support they might give us.’

On a personal level, would he go back to Unilever? Say there was a finance director vacancy there? He laughs – ‘if the price was right’ – before adding more seriously: ‘When you have been in a business of a scale that you can effect change, where you make the decision and can see the change happen straight away, it’s quite difficult to go back to an organisation where decision making and change takes so long to effect.’

He wants to stick it out. ‘I would love to still be here running the business when we are three times the size we are today.’

By the sounds of things, that might not take too long.

15 people on BNP membership list call themselves 'accountant'

David Jetuah — 2008-11-20T12:08:00.000Z

David Jetuah, Accountancy Age, Thursday 20 November 2008 at 12:08:00

Leaked list of British National Party members details 15 people describing themselves as a member of the profession

At least 15 people on the leaked British National Party membership roster call themselves accountants.

The list, which contains the details of more than 13,500 people, found its way onto the internet after a disgruntled ex-employee of the far-right organisation decided to post it, and a search of the document found people flagging themselves up as members of the profession.

In addition to their names addresses and phone numbers, some of the individuals also claimed to be members of the UK's leading institutes.

One described himself as a finance director currently working in Russia.

A spokesman for one institute said that individual members political affiliations were ' a matter for them and not for us,' but added that any breach of the body's code of ethics and conduct would be punished.

The list may include lapsed members of the party and the names and addresses of people who have expressed an interest in joining the party, but have not signed up.

However, some others on the list have already voiced fears that their jobs were on the line because the document was out in the open.

Royal Opera House brings in Palace FD

Alex Hawkes — 2008-11-20T00:51:00.000Z

Alex Hawkes, Accountancy Age, Thursday 20 November 2008 at 00:51:00

The Royal Opera House has appointed a new director of finance, Sally O'Neill

Sally O’Neill, the current finance director of the Historic Royal Palaces, is to take over the role in February 2009.

O’Neill, a judge in this year’s Accountancy Age Awards, will take on an organisation with a budget of more than £90m. The Historic Royal Palaces – comprising the Tower of London, Hampton Court, Banqueting House, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace – turns over approximately £50m.

The move marks a return to O’Neill’s theatrical roots after a previous role at the National Theatre. She has also worked for Channel 4, Granada, and the shopping channel QVC.

‘I never had a [career] gameplan. It has all been serendipity,’ she told Accountancy Age in an interview published last year.

Click here to go to the Royal Opera House website

Peter Wyman announces departure from PwC

Rachael Singh — 2008-11-20T00:49:00.000Z

Rachael Singh, Accountancy Age, Thursday 20 November 2008 at 00:49:00

Peter Wyman to leave PricewaterhouseCoopers after being a partner with the firm for more than 30 years

Peter Wyman plans to leave PricewaterhouseCoopers after 41 years to become a company director.

Speaking at last week’s Accountancy Age Awards, where he picked up the Outstanding Industry Contribution award, Wyman confirmed that he is to retire from the Big Four accountancy firm in June next year. He also told Accountancy Age that he is planning to build a portfolio of directorships which he hopes to have in place by then.

The global leader of public policy at PwC is also trying to set up some consultancy work in the not-for-profit sector and hopes to split his time between the UK and abroad.

Wyman said: ‘At 59, it’s time to go, although I continue to enjoy my role at the firm hugely. I have no intention of retiring and am putting together a portfolio of directorships and not-for-profit roles in areas which interest me.’

The veteran has been a partner with the firm for more than 30 years. Wyman said he had only intended to stay for a short period of time with a ‘view to qualifying and then getting out’ but was a ‘slow developer’.

He added that: ‘My move now is about 35 years later than the original plan.’

MPs claim Bradford & Bingley chairman mislead shareholders

Rachael Singh — 2008-11-19T14:20:00.000Z

Rachael Singh, Accountancy Age, Wednesday 19 November 2008 at 14:20:00

Pym has been likened to the weather forecaster who claimed there was no hurricane, hours before it devastated the UK

Richard Pym, the chairman of Bradford and Bingley has been told by MPs that he made misleading confident statements which ultimately devastated shareholders.

John McFall of the Treasury Select Committee added that Pym was similar to the weather forecaster who failed to realise there was a hurricane approaching the UK, hours before it ransacked the country The Times reported.

McFall said: 'Is it fair to describe yourself as the financial services industry's Michael Fish?'

'You were struck down by a storm and a hurricane that took everything away' he added.

The reference to Michael Fish, a BBC weather forecaster, who dismissed claims that a hurricane was approaching the UK, hours before it demolished southern parts of Britain.

Pym said: 'I can sympathise with people who say I may have been misleading.'

Two days after issuing a confidence statement Pym agreed with the Financial Services Authority's claims that the bank was too weak to survive without a rescue plan.

However Pym argues that the bank was in good shape when the statement was made, but due to the announced takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB, B&B was the last mortgage bank left which resulted in lost confidence.

Pym said: 'Poor little B&B was the last mortgage bank standing and was always going to be the centre of media attention, and there was a loss of [depositor] confidence.'

He added that savers started to withdraw money in high volumes, with over £300m being withdrawn in three days.

Further reading:

Bradford & Bingley chairman Richard Pym failed to see storms on horizon

EXCLUSIVE: Lennox to leave E&Y

Alex Hawkes — 2008-11-19T09:39:00.000Z

Alex Hawkes, Accountancy Age, Wednesday 19 November 2008 at 09:39:00

Scot who ran for chairman's role against Mark Otty to leave Big Four firm in March next year

Jock Lennox, who lost out to Mark Otty in the race to become Ernst & Young chairman in 2005, has decided to retire from the Big Four firm.

Lennox, who was 49 when he ran for the chairmanship, has already lined up a non-exec role at Oxford Instruments.

He will retire at the end of March next year.

The firm said in a statement: 'Jock Lennox, who has been a partner at Ernst & Young since 1988, has decided to retire from the firm at 31 March 2009.

'Jock has had a highly successful career at Ernst & Young, most notably handling and developing important client relationships and encouraging the careers of many of our younger partners and staff.

'He is recognised by his peers as a leader in our market and has held a number of different roles that have contributed to the development of the firm's business, actively supporting the international progression of Ernst & Young and the expansion of our clients.'

Former B&B chairman takes blame for lender's demise

AccountancyAge.com — 2008-11-19T07:45:00.000Z

AccountancyAge.com, Accountancy Age, Wednesday 19 November 2008 at 07:45:00

Rod Kent is 'massively sorry' and accepts the blame for the lender's demise at Treasury committee hearing

Rod Kent, former Bradford & Bingley chairman, expressed his regret yesterday, telling a Commons Treasury select committee hearing nationalisation had been the only option after a run on his bank.

Kent apologised for his management's role in the lender's demise and said the bank's board 'accepts it is fully accountable for what happened' and was 'massively sorry".

However, Richard Pym, B&B's chief executive, blamed the media for playing a part in the panic which led to the lender's demise. He stood by the lender's statement of September 25 - before it was 'over-run' by withdrawals - that it was 'strongly capitalised'.

Two days after the statement, the company was told its capital position did not meet levels required by the Financial Services Authority. Pym said the customer panic was fuelled by reports suggesting government aid was planned.

Further reading:

B&B racks up £27m in losses

Santander – who is behind the world's 5th most profitable bank?

Read The Independent story

CFO takes over at Island Oil and Gas

Joanne Christie — 2008-11-18T09:25:00.000Z

Joanne Christie, Accountancy Age, Tuesday 18 November 2008 at 09:25:00

Island's commercial director to stand down to focus on other ventures

The CFO of Island Oil and Gas will take control of the company's commercial business following company director Karl Prenderville's announcement today that he plans to step down.

Carl Kindinger, 57, was appointed to the top financial job in October of this year, having already served as non-executive director on Island's board for around two years.

Prenderville, who is standing down to pursue other ventures, will remain with the company until the end of the year to assist with a handover.

E&Y's Lennox gets non-exec role

Alex Hawkes — 2008-11-18T08:48:00.000Z

Alex Hawkes, Accountancy Age, Tuesday 18 November 2008 at 08:48:00

Jock Lennox, who stood for the chairman's job at E&Y, to take on role at technology group

Jock Lennox of Ernst & Young has been appointed a non-executive director of Oxford Instruments, a high-technology tools and systems provider.

The appointment takes effect from April 2009. The company said he would eventually become chairman of the audit committee.

Lennox was one of the two candidates for the chairman role at E&Y, losing out to South African Mark Otty in 2005.

He is currently a senior partner at Ernst & Young, where he qualified in 1980 and became a partner in 1988. He is a trustee of Golden Lane Housing, the property arm of Mencap, a member of the ICAS council, and was a member of the CBI's Manufacturing Council from 2003 to 2006.