The dastardly Mr Deedes

Robert F Smith, the former Goldman Sachs banker-turned-billionaire technology tycoon, has chosen to base his global software firm Finastra in London’s Paddington. Hopefully, we’ll now see more of Colorado-born Smith, 54, and his enchanting wife, curvy ex-Playboy bunny, Hope Dworaczyk, 32, on these shores. They’d certainly match Posh and Beck sequin-forsequin in the flamboyancy stakes. At the couple’s 2015 wedding on the Amalfi coast, their seven-month-old son Hendrix floated to the altar on a cloud created by the production team behind Cirque du Soleil. Willie Walsh, head of British Airways’ parent company IAG, got an easy ride at the company’s annual general meeting in Madrid yesterday, despite the recent IT meltdown costing the carrier £80m. Conveniently, the AGM has been held in Spain, far away from angry shareholders, ever since BA merged with Iberia in 2010. Were it still in London’s Barbican, investors might have been hoisting wee Willie up by his undergarments. Ex- Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn, who I mentioned earlier this week is said to be frustrated working in Donald Trump’s White House, may have found an escape route. He’s been asked to find a successor to Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, and DC observers reckon Cohn, 56, will try to present himself as the best candidate. Dick Cheney deployed the same ruse when entasked by George W Bush to find him a vicepresident. Scriptwriters on Netflix’s Washington- set series House of Cards aren’t pushed for inspiration, are they? DFS shares plummeted 20.6pc yesterday after the sofa company issued a profit warning. Bearded chief executive Ian Filby claimed the shortfall in demand was down to the general election. Eh? During a 1997 slowdown, DFS’s billionaire owner Sir Graham Kirkham laughably blamed the slump on the death of Princess Diana. Temperley, the boho fashion label owned by the Duchess of Cambridge’s favourite designer Alice Temperley, posts annual losses just shy of £4m. Oof! Might the so-called ‘Kate effect’ be on the wane? Have you any gossip for our City diary? Email: mrdeedes@dailymail.co.uk