The dastardly Mr Deedes
Glamourpuss financier Amanda Staveley’s proposed takeover of Newcastle United FC is officially dead in the water, according to sources. While Bambi- eyed Amanda, 45, will be disappointed not to have pulled off the £400m deal, I’m told she won’t miss dealing with the club’s owner, pot-bellied tracksuit tycoon Mike Ashley, 53, whose negotiating style could be far from orthodox. Particularly after he had enjoyed a good lunch.
Marillyn Hewson, boss of the world’s largest arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, has been named CEO of the year by her American peers. The redoubtable mother- of- two, 64, whose annual remuneration bounces around the £20m mark, is one of the business world’s leading power players, though sadly not one of its sparklers. A guest who witnessed Hewson’s recent keynote speech at the Royal Aeronautical Society dinner in London’s Piccadilly groans: ‘Talk about shock and bore!’
BP’s Bob Dudley travels to Russia this week to attend a business conference hosted by Vladimir Putin. Brave fellow. A BP colleague recently claimed Mississippi Bob, 62, was forced to flee Moscow in 2011 after he was poisoned by one the President’s goons. With that in mind, were we unduly hasty in criticising Dudley’s £15m-ayear pay packet?
Oxford University’s public affairs director Ceri Thomas, 60, got stung yesterday after retweeting a message which suggested that Labour MP David Lammy, who has attacked Oxford’s record on minority admissions, was ‘bitter’. If Thomas’s name is familiar that is because he used to be a top bod at the BBC where he was seen as a future director-general. His Leftish, pro-EU views are said to go down well with the Chancellor of Oxford, his old BBC chairman Chris Patten.
A report making the economic case for an independent Scotland entitled ‘The New Case for Optimism’ will be unveiled by first minister Nicola Sturgeon on Friday. The bulky, 354-page dossier was drawn up by Andrew Wilson, 48, an owlish economist who previously served as trusted adviser to Fred Goodwin at Royal Bank of Scotland. Handle with caution!