Luxury lifestyles of the bosses targeting GKN
MeLRoSe’S top four bosses could split £285million if their takeover bid pays off. Yet their City careers have already afforded its three founders luxury lifestyles.
SIMON PECKHAM Chief executive
A 55-year-old lawyer, Mr Peckham is known as the ‘hard man’ of the firm. Melrose is said to have been formed at his 40th party.
Mr Peckham appeared at pains to retain a down-toearth persona when confessing to owning a ‘small place’ in west London in an interview with The Sunday Times earlier this year.
But inspection of Land Registry documents reveal that far from a modest bolthole, Mr Peckham’s residence is a six bedroom mansion which he and his wife Geraldine bought for £10.3million.
His primary home is even
larger and sits in Surrey’s stockbroker belt. A keen skier, he also owns a chalet in Canada’s Whistler resort.
In 2016, he took home a total pay packet of £9 7,000. Helped by a bonus in 2017, he owns shares worth around £37million. CHRISTOPHER MILLER Executive chairman
AN accountant by training, Mr Miller, 66, made a fortune at Wassall, a group he and his long-time friend David Roper grew from £2million in 19 to £627million in 2000, before being bought out.
According to Mr Roper, the pair then entered quasiretirement and ‘ farted about improving our golf
handicap for a couple of years’, before deciding to return to the arena of cutthroat capitalism once again with Melrose.
He is married with three children and resides in a handsome mansion worth £5.5million in an upmarket west London suburb.
In 2016, he took home a total pay packet of £549,000. Helped by the bonus last year, he owns shares worth around £66million. DAVID ROPER Executive vice chairman
MR Roper, 67, is known as ‘The Grinder’ for his attention to detailed financial analysis when considering
company takeovers. Apparently not one to mince his words, the keen golfer, who also played on the wing for Blackheath rugby club, has reportedly wound up GKN management by describing the company as ‘a bit like lions led by donkeys’.
A keen Brexiteer, he originally studied metallurgy at the University of Nottingham before qualifying as an accountant.
He lives in a £9million six bedroom house in south London with his second wife Lydia and has three children. In 2016, he took home a total pay packet of £54 ,000.
Helped by last year’s bonus, he owns shares worth around £34million.