Reclusive accountant leads RBS to £6bn profits
Fred Goodwin, chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has led the £50bn high street bank to profits of £6bn, while keeping a low media-profile.
Link: ‘Takeover’ the key to RBS success with NatWest
Goodwin, 45, an accountant, began his career Touche Ross, where he oversaw the liquidation of BCCI in 1991.
At RBS, he secured record profits on the back of 23 timely acquisitions made during the Iraq conflict when prices were depressed as well as by cutting 18,000 jobs following the takeover of NatWEst, saving £1.5bn.
Goodwin is notoriously media-shy, preferring to ‘do business than talk about it,’ the Observer newspaper wrote after he declined to be interviewed.
But he also believed to be a tough disciplinarian and hard worker.