The dartardly Mr Deedes
Roly-poly former CBI director Lord – formerly Digby – Jones will appear at next month’s Hay Festival, where organisers say he’ll discuss – among other things – ‘the elephant in the boardroom, executive pay’. Digby’s audience might want to discuss his own financial arrangements. It’s been revealed the millionaire crossbencher, 61, claims the House of Lords £300 daily allowance, even on days when he scoots off to make lucrative after-dinner speeches.
The Queen held a soiree on Monday at Windsor Castle, where venerable guests included former Bishop of London Richard Chartres, ex-National Trust chair Sir William Proby, and Eton headmaster Simon Henderson. Also in attendance: Brunswick founder and wealthy public relations toady, Sir Alan Parker. The smooth chairmanship of ‘Surrallen’ at Save the Children has evidently greased establishment wheels.
Dutch bank ING’s head of financial markets Mark Pieter de Boer has issued his sales team with TomTom smartwatches, a fitness gadget that monitors the number of steps you take. Floppy-haired De Boer, 56, works at a standing desk to burn more calories. Sky chairman James Murdoch does the same. As does under-fire BT stud- muffin Gavin Patterson, though his current woes are said to be causing him enough perspiration for the moment.
EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager, whose put the kibosh on the LSE’s £21bn merger with Deutsche Boerse, is a tough cookie. But she’s not without a sense of humour. Wired magazine says after Margrethe, 48, slashed benefits in Denmark, a trade union sent her a plastercast mould of a hand with an extended middle finger. The vulgar trinket occupies pride of place on her Brussels desk.
Preppy US clothing giant J.Crew announces the departure of charismatic president Jenna Lyons after years of declining sales. A tall, striking figure with distinctive oversized spectacles, Lyons, 48, was once dubbed ‘The Woman Who Dresses America’. She scandalised Manhattan society in 2011 when she left her husband of nine years to elope with Courtney Crangi, a Sapphic blonde she said had ‘shown me new love’.