The dastardly Mr Deedes
HSBC’s self-assured chairman Mark Tucker was a keynote speaker at the recent International Fintech Conference in London, along with raffish Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio and Santander’s UK head, Nathan Bostock. Does tough nut Tucker, 60, mean to overshadow his wetbehind-the-ears new chief executive John Flint? It’s been three months since £2.9m a-year Flint, 48, took over, and we’re yet to hear a peep out of him. Meanwhile, his chairman bestrides the global stage, giving speeches and interviews to all and sundry. Let’s hope it doesn’t end in tears. Guppy-eyed Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s energy group EN+ is being hurriedly disowned since it was slapped with US sanctions. Two directors have quit. So have brokers Credit Suisse. Roland Rudd’s PR outfit Finsbury, which helped with last year’s stock market float, are no longer working with the firm. Thank heavens Lord Mandelson’s furtive consultancy firm Global Counsel continues to tender its advice. Following John Cryan’s bloody exit from Deutsche Bank, investors now demand the head of the lender’s weasely-looking chairman Paul Achleitner. For now, Achleit- ner, 61, is said to enjoy his board’s support. But one wonders if he’ll come to regret recently appointing John Thain, 62, the steely investment banker with a cyborg-like gaze whose ruthlessness once led to him being compared to a ‘stone-cold killer’. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 33, received a crash course in humility from big hitting lawyers WilmerHale ahead of yesterday’s testimony on Capitol Hill. The Washington-based firm, which typically bills clients £1,000 per hour, were retained by Richard Nixon during Watergate. Its London office is currently investigating WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell over murky allegations of misuse of company funds. Citigroup have written a cease and desist letter to a cannabis dispensary in California which calls itself Citidank (‘dank’ being urban speak for getting stoned) and has a logo eerily similar to that belonging to the banking giant. A spokesman for Citi remarks drily: ‘Unless you are as high as a kite, you’ll know Citi isn’t affiliated with this business in any way.’