The Dastardly Mr Deedes
Unilever’s Paul Polman has been oddly silent on the firm’s move to Rotterdam – no bad thing considering the Dutchman’s propensity for ponderousness. All the chatter is coming from finance chief Graeme Pitkethly, which’ll do his leadership chances no harm when Polman shuffles off next year. Scots-born Pitkethly, 51, an urbane numbers man with a £3.1m salary, possibly lacks the requisite marketing experience for the top job but is well worth an each-way bet. he’s not to be confused with Thomas Piketty, 47, the loony tunes French economist who advocates an 80pc tax rate. WPP’s slightly pedestrian new boss Mark Read’s first act in charge of the sprawling advertising giant is to announce the creation of a new agency. Its name? VMLY&R. Trips off the tongue, doesn’t it? Virgin Atlantic has released a promotional video featuring founder Sir Richard Branson and hollywood himbo Ryan Reynolds, announcing that the Deadpool actor’s Aviation American Gin will now be sold on its flights. Doesn’t it speak volumes for Beardie’s generosity that he allows a megastar like Reynolds to piggyback on his global celebrity? Chancellor Philip Hammond’s decision to schedule the budget two days before Halloween is brave. Mr Hammond, as I am wont to observe, is a funereal figure. Any doom and gloom in his red box, and newspapers will be unable to resist depicting him as The Addams Family’s manservant, Lurch. has Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s defibrillator job on the Washington Post put print media back in vogue? Following Salesforce billionaire Marc Benioff’s £136m purchase of Time magazine, Fortune is now reportedly being circled by a consortium led by Gatsby-esque British consultant Ian Osborne. And I hear Scott Ruddman, head of private equity firm Nectar Capital, is mulling a £4m offer for wealth management bible Spear’s. Life in the old dog yet. US firm City Furniture reports a revival in waterbed sales among health-obsessed millennial couples attracted to their therapeutic benefits, which includes improved blood circulation. Let us hope the delicate snowflakes don’t start drifting apart.