The dastardly Mr Deedes
executives at Aviva recently had to travel all the way over to the Far east for a raft of meetings with business partners. This proved a handy little diversion for the insurer’s rugby-mad boss Mark Wilson, 50. The junket gave him just the excuse to schlep over to his native New Zealand to catch the first All Blacks v Lions Test match. On his own shilling, I am assured.
EasyJet’s Dame Carolyn McCall looks an ideal fit to replace Adam Crozier at ITV. I’m told the broadcaster wants a tried and tested chief executive for the job, which rules out an internal candidate. But would affable Dame Carolyn, 55, who the carrier has paid £8m in the past two years, want the job? All I know is she wouldn’t miss jousting with EasyJet’s wellpadded majority shareholder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, 50, who remains prone to Little Lord Fauntleroy tantrums from his schloss in tax-friendly Monaco.
Bankers Rothschild & Co this week announced a handful of new managing directors. Becoming an MD at the fusty, 200year-old institution is something of a badge of honour since it means access to the Rothschild fleet of butlers. When the bank recently advertised for a new assistant butler, candidates were expected to fulfil such Downtonesque duties as ‘keeping the pantry fully stocked’ and taking the morning ‘butler briefing’ when the head butler is away.
City lawyers Jones Day yesterday upped the pay of its newly qualified lawyers, typically in their early twenties, by 18pc to £105,000. Staggering, isn’t it? Even the snotty trainees at the firm are paid £54,000.
Channel 4’s speccy chairman Charles Gurassa, 61, has enlisted City headhunters egon Zehnder to find a replacement for the broadcaster’s chief creative officer Jay hunt, who departs in September. Website Popbitch helpfully points out these were the same clowns tasked by the BBC in 2012 with finding ex- director general Mark Thompson’s successor. After an exhaustive search, they settled upon George entwistle, a cosseted (and possibly useless) BBC lifer, who lasted just 54 days.