Wakeham to step down from warship post
Lord Wakeham, former non-executive director at Enron, is stepping down as chairman of warship builder Vosper Thornycroft and will retire from the company in 2003.
In a statement yesterday, the board said Wakeham, a former Tory cabinet minister, would take up the post of deputy chairman after the company’s AGM in July.
Wakeham, who is also a chartered accountant, would then retire from the board at Vosper’s AGM in 2003.
Chief executive Martin Jay will replace Wakeham as chairman and Paul Lester, currently group managing director of Balfour Beatty, will take up the post of chief executive.
Wakeham has been on shaky ground since the eruption of the Enron scandal, as he sat on the audit committee of the failed energy giant. He stepped down as non-executive director in February.
Earlier in January, the Tory peer quit the Press Complaints Commission in a move he called ‘a matter of honour’.
Last month, it was revealed that accounting recruitment specialist Michael Page was under pressure from US shareholders to vote against Wakeham’s reappointment as chairman at the company’s AGM later this month.