City profiles

Roger Jenkins

The former Barclays banker, credited with “saving” the bank during the crash by bringing on board Middle Eastern investors, hopes to become “America’s new cannabis king”, says the Daily Mail. The muscular Scot – nicknamed “Roger the Dodger” for his expertise in tax avoidance – is backing a fund that aims to farm in California, months before the state votes on whether to allow “recreational” use. If the measure is approved, the market for legal cannabis in the state is expected to grow from $2.7bn today (medical use is already permitted) to $6.6bn by 2020. Jenkins, who once dated supermodel Elle Macpherson and “happily” awarded his ex-wife a £150m divorce settlement, was once the City’s best-paid banker. Time will tell if the “green rush” proves as lucrative.

Philip Hammond

The new Chancellor’s racy business career belies his “understated”, somewhat boring image, says the FT. A product of “the swashbuckling Thatcher era”, he was “a risk-taker” whose business ventures didn’t always pay off. After cutting his teeth running school discos in Essex, Hammond “bought and sold Ford cars from the nearby Dagenham plant” and, after Oxford, sold summer trips to the city to Iranians – a venture scuppered by the 1979 revolution. After a bruising experience with a medical device company, liquidated in 1986, Hammond eventually cleaned up in property with house-builder Castlemead. As his friend and business associate Lord Moynihan recalls. “He always saw the opportunity. He was never not thinking about how to make money.”