The dastardly Mr Deedes
■ Deutsche Bank’s blundering chairman Paul achleitner, 61, has turned to headhunters heidrick & Struggles in his harebrained effort to replace his Yorkshire-born chief, John Cryan. he’s keen to lure a big name from the City but, considering Deutsche’s apocalyptic predicament, an internal appointment looks more realistic. Leading the pack is DB’s investment banking chief Marcus Schenck, 52, a lithe, icy-looking creature whose CV will doubtless get clueless recruiters drooling: PhD in economics. Tick! Goldman Sachs alumnus. Massive tick! Most important of all, he’s German. ■ Goldman Sachs’s indefatigable boss Lloyd Blankfein, 63, who’s lately allowed his signature five-day facial bristle to advance into a full Captain Birdseye monstrosity, tweets a picture of himself posing sycophantically with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman, 32. A City wag notes: ‘One’s a charmless tyrant who lords over his kingdom with an iron fist... the other is the ruler of Saudi Arabia.’ Boom, boom! ■ harvey Nichols’ deputy chairman Stacey Cartwright, who as chief executive was credited with modernising the department store, addresses next month’s World retail Congress in Madrid. awkward timing. It was just announced that still-got-it Stacey, 54, will leave harvey Nicks in a fortnight after it posted £6.7m losses. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if she click-clacks on to the stage and stilettoes her old employer? ■ Jewellery tycoon Gerald Ratner, 68, who famously described his own products as ‘crap’, has been in Dubai mentoring budding property entrepreneurs at Progressive Property. Although his gaffe caused the near collapse of his firm, Ratner’s fortunes eventually recovered and he is now much in demand on the corporate circuit. Progressive Property founder, Mark Homer, 38, says: ‘Our clients love Gerald for bouncing back.’ ■ easyJet is upping its quota of female pilots after it was revealed that barely 5pc were women. Coincidence, I am sure, but journalists returning from an easyJet press trip to Berlin this week were charmed to be greeted by a fresh-faced brunette from behind the controls.