Tributes to Richard Cousins

The flood of tributes to Richard Cousins, the chief executive of catering giant Compass who was killed with his family in a seaplane crash in Australia on New Year’s Eve, are testament to a towering, if unassuming, business figure. They come from very impressive business people in their own right, including Compass chairman and ex-diageo chief executive Paul Walsh, Lord Livingston, the former boss of BT and former UK minister for trade, and Rupert Soames, chief executive of outsourcer Serco.

Public relations chiefs and senior journalists who knew Cousins personally speak of a deeply capable