The office ‘Big Dog’ who saved the day... and dated The Body
‘Big presence with a big ego’
ROGER Jenkins was the highest-paid banker in London when the financial crisis hit in 2008.
The deal-maker, nicknamed ‘Big Dog’ at the bank, was an office bruiser – described as ‘a big presence with a big ego’ – who once dated Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson.
He played the key role in bringing the Qataris to the table, and reaped a £25 million reward for his role, which took his earnings between 2007 and 2008 to £65 million.
Scottish-born, Mr Jenkins represented his country in the 400m at the 1974 Commonwealth Games. After studying economics at HeriotWatt University, he joined Barclays as a graduate trainee.
His brother David, a former golden boy of British athletics, was jailed in America for smuggling £54 million of steroids across the Mexican border.
Away from the bank, Roger Jenkins mixed with the rich and famous. Many of these connections he owed to his second wife, Sanela Dijana Catic, a beautiful Bosnian refugee 16 years his junior, who he met in a City gym.
In 1999, Miss Catic became Mrs Diana Jenkins and the couple became a fixture on London’s A-List philanthropic social scene. Friends included Mick Jagger, fashion designer Stella McCartney and former model Cindy Crawford.
He once hosted a soiree to raise £10 million for Darfur refugees. Among the guests were Matt Damon, Sir Michael Caine, Bono and Scarlett Johansson.
Crucially his wife’s connections also included the Qatari royal family, most notably Sheikh Hamad, Qatar Holding’s chairman.
Mr Jenkins had already made his name at Barclays conducting a legal but controversial tax avoidance division, making an estimated £120 million in his first three years. But he went on to head the investment banking division in the Middle East, where he was the ‘rainmaker’ for the deal to save the bank.
His wife was said to have made contact first with the sheikh’s wife.
What followed were weeks of fraught negotiations which led one senior Barclays banker to observe: ‘They’ve got us by the balls’.
Rallying his troops, Mr Jenkins branded colleagues ‘pathetic’ and called for ‘tough leadership’, saying: ‘God, no wonder people can’t do deals. There comes a time where you’ve just got to shoot.’
As soon as the initial deal was agreed with the Qataris, the backslapping began. On June 26, 2008, the bank’s chief executive emailed Mr Jenkins and said: ‘We could not have done what we have done without the pivotal role you played. Thank you for the extraordinary skill and tenacity that you have brought to (the) project.’
But within a year of the deal being signed, Mr Jenkins left the bank and split from his wife. The couple divorced in 2012, with Mrs Jenkins reportedly receiving £150 million.
Mr Jenkins went on to marry Larissa Andrade, a Brazilian actress 29 years his junior, in a ceremony conducted by a ‘wellbeing practitioner’ in Brazil. The couple live in Malibu, California.