City profiles

David Ingram There is growing concern about the predicament of David Ingram, a senior partner at Grant Thornton “detained in the United Arab Emirates for more than two months without charge”, says The Times. Ingram had his passport seized while travelling through Dubai, for reasons that are unclear. A London-based insolvency expert specialising in tracing and recovering assets, he is best known for overseeing the bankruptcy of Scot Young, “a fixer for tycoons and Russian oligarchs who died in 2014 in mysterious circumstances”. Things could be worse: he’s being allowed to stay in a hotel. But, as he noted on Twitter in July, “the reality of being on bail with passport seized does take the edge off the sunshine”. He has since deleted his Twitter account.

Lynton Crosby

The Australian political strategist “blamed by some Conservatives for Theresa May’s disastrous general election performance” is forming a new company, says the FT. Lynton Crosby has teamed up with Barack Obama’s former advisor, Jim Messina, to form Outra – a digital agency that will help businesses “microtarget” customers on social media. “It’s a natural extension of what we do,” Crosby says. He was nicknamed the “Wizard of Oz” after helping Boris Johnson and David Cameron to unexpected victories. But critics argue that his approach – which involves focusing on one core political message – is a “busted flush”. One former colleague accepts Crosby’s stock may be “diminished”, but thinks he’ll still be seen as “a serious player in the wider business world”.