CHAIRMAN WITH UNCANNY KNACK FOR SURVIVAL

THE chairman of G4S stands to make more than £1m if the Garda World takeover goes ahead. John Connolly ( left) owns more than 600,000 G4S shares worth £1.16m at the 190p a share offer price. The 70-year-old – whose chequered career includes the collapse of Barlow Clowes in the 1980s, and whose protege Fred Goodwin ( pictured inset ) brought RBS to the brink of collapse – insists the bid ‘significantly’ undervalues the firm. The former accountant is no stranger to controversy and has shown an uncanny knack for survival. Since he took over as chairman at G4S in June 2012, the company has been rocked by scandals, from its failure to supply enough security guards for the London Olympics to charging taxpayers for tagging offenders who were dead or back in prison.

But Connolly remains in his £382,000 a year job following a lucrative accountancy career. As chief executive of ‘Big Four’ auditor Deloitte, he became Britain’s highest paid accountant in 2008 when he earned £5.7m.

That was the year that RBS imploded under Goodwin, who worked under Connolly at Deloitte. When Goodwin became chief executive of RBS in 2001, one of his first acts was to award the contract to audit the doomed bank to Deloitte.

The collapse of investment broker Barlow Clowes in 1988 after massive fraud was one of the biggest City’s biggest ever scandals. Connolly managed to brush off calls to resign and instead rose to become UK senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte.