Scottish Daily Mail

Our scabrous diarist looks back on a rollercoas­ter year in the City

- Illustrati­ons: HENRY DAVIES

HEROES EMMA WALMSLEY New Glaxo chief executive

When Oxford-educated Walmsley (right) was appointed as GlaxoSmith­Kline’s new chief executive in September, it was hailed as a watershed moment for women in business. Not only is she the first female head in the £80bn drugs giant’s 150-year history – arguably making her the most powerful woman in British business – but as the mother of four children, her achievemen­t shattered a glass ceiling perceived to have prevented so many women from reaching the top. Attractive, powerfully dressed and whippet-smart, Walmsley, 47, previously worked for French cosmetics firm L’Oreal, before making her name in Glaxo’s healthcare division, doubling sales of Sensodyne toothpaste to £1bn. She modestly attributes much of her success to the support of her husband of 21 years, Cambridge-educated entreprene­ur David Owen, 52, with whom she shares a £3.7m home in south-west London. Blessed with a strident work ethic, rising at 4.30am in order to be seated at her desk at 6am, she is expected to be on a basic salary similar to the £1.1m earned by outgoing chief Sir Andrew Witty. With shareholde­rs pushing for the company to be broken up, she will face an early test of her steely resolve when she takes control in March.

JOHN LONGWORTH Former BCC director-general

While major business groups dithered, the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) director-general became the first corporate lobbyist to come out in support of Brexit. His reward was to be barracked with angry text messages from the Downing Street bunker and handed a suspension for breaching the BCC’s rules on impartiali­ty. With quiet dignity, Longworth, 58, subsequent­ly resigned in order to speak his mind. Meanwhile, the proponents of the failed ‘Project Fear’ he so laudably rubbished were wreathed in honours.

NEIL WOODFORD Star fund manager

Rapacious fund managers boasting £100m fortunes make unlikely candidates for hero status, but Woodford’s decision to abolish staff bonuses at his Woodford Investment Management fund merits applause. The 56-year-old, who favours a Steve Jobs-style uniform of black polo necks and jeans, decreed that bonuses can distort behaviour, encouragin­g misconduct, recklessne­ss and short-termism. He still paid himself £7.2m after company profits trebled to £35.5m. But let’s not quibble over such matters for now pour encourager les autres.

ANDREW BAILEY FCA chief executive

If ex-chancellor George Osborne’s handling of the appointmen­t of the new Financial Conduct Authority boss was cack-handed – he announced on Radio 4 that acting chief Tracey McDermott was not being considered – few argued with his eventual choice for the job. ExBank of England egghead, Bailey’s proposed shake-up of Britain’s £7trillion asset management industry over rip-off fees shows he hasn’t been shy to flex his muscles since starting the role in the summer. Surely Governor Bailey before long, if he can keep his nose clean.

TIM MARTIN Wetherspoo­ns founder

The mullet-haired Wetherspoo­ns boss was one of the few business leaders willing to speak out in favour of leaving the EU, forking out £224,000 of his £254m fortune for the Leave campaign. He derides moaning Remain supporters trying to overturn the referendum result as ‘the mouthy few’. Craggy and unkempt he may be, but the cheery and unreconstr­ucted pub landlord, 61, adds to the gaiety of the nation during these jittery times.

DAVE LEWIS Tesco chief executive

Tesco’s £4.6m-a-year boss is finally beginning to see the green shoots of his recovery plan for the ailing supermarke­t, with the company’s shares up 37pc this year. Not bad considerin­g a £326m accounting scandal plunged the firm into the worst crisis in its 97-year history two years ago. ‘Drastic Dave’, 51, also cemented his unflinchin­g reputation after standing firm during ‘Marmitegat­e’, when consumer giant Unilever brazenly attempted to impose a 10pc price hike on its goods, blaming Brexit.

VILLAINS ANTONIO HORTA-OSORIO Lloyds chief executive

That Lloyds bank should still be 7pc owned by the Government some eight years after it was bailed out to the tune of £20.5bn remains a source of great anger to the British taxpayer. That it should emerge the bank’s married boss appeared to spend part of a company trip frolicking with a vampish blonde in a fivestar hotel left them positively hopping. Charming, olive-skinned and always impeccably attired, handsome Antonio, 52, (above) made for an all- too-likely Portuguese lothario. The fact that the woman in question, sexy blue-stocking Dr Wendy Piatt, was an eerie doppelgang­er for his wife Ana made the saga even more compelling. Ironically, prior to the alleged dalliance, frisky Antonio went out of his way to espouse his commitment to family values when he was forced to take time off work for exhaustion in 2011. ‘One lesson is clearly keeping time for my family,’ he explained at the time. On top of the whole sorry business, Lloyds’ tumbling share price and an announceme­nt that a further £1bn would be set aside to cover payment protection insurance claims capped a torrid year for the erstwhile golden boy of banking. The prospect of a bigger job – the chief executive role at HSBC had been widely mooted – now looks dead in the water. Oh, oh, Antonio…

CHRISTINE LAGARDE IMF managing director

The Internatio­nal Monetary Fund boss chose to immerse herself in the EU referendum, claiming Britain faced financial Armageddon should it vote Brexit. ‘We have looked at all the scenarios. We have done our homework and we haven’t found anything positive to say about a Brexit vote,’ she said. There may well be worse things on this planet than being lectured to by an unelected, Washington­based bureaucrat draped headto-toe in expensive Chanel couture who was facing criminal charges of negligence (of which she has since been found guilty), but most British voters struggled to think of one.

MIKE ASHLEY Sports Direct boss

When the definitive annals of British history are composed, Sports Direct billionair­e Mike Ashley may struggle to find himself named alongside such revered titans of industry as Andrew Carnegie and George Cadbury. So appalling were working conditions inside his firm’s Derbyshire headquarte­rs that Ashley, 52, was accused by MPs of running it like a Victorian workhouse. Meanwhile, the company’s share price has plunged 51pc, abruptly exiting the FTSE 100. Gruff, pot-bellied and seemingly incapable of fastening the top button of his shirt, the Newcastle United owner is not as nice as he looks.

SIR PHILIP GREEN Arcadia owner

This time last year, Sir Philip Green was boisterous­ly holding court at the Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados without a care in the world. Twelve months on he is being pursued by the pensions authoritie­s over an unfulfille­d pledge to plug the £571m pension black hole at BHS, the now defunct department store from which his family extracted millions before offloading it to pompadoure­d serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell for a mere £1. Once heralded as the King of the High Street, the (for now) knight of the realm’s impregnabl­e reputation is as tattered and torn as a discarded BHS blouse.

BOB DUDLEY BP chief executive

The British Petroleum boss was awarded an extraordin­ary £14m pay package despite the oil giant recording record £4.5bn losses and laying off thousands of staff. Perhaps the dreary New Yorker is irreplacea­ble and could receive such vast remunerati­on elsewhere. The 59pc of BP shareholde­rs who voted against his pay clearly think otherwise.

CRISPIN ODEY Hedge fund boss

Time was that when roly-poly hedge funder Crispin Odey, 52, went short on a company’s stock, nervy investors ducked for cover. Not this year. Despite reaping £220m after correctly predicting Britain would vote Leave at the referendum, the arch Brexiteer’s main fund suffered a near 50pc drop in value. The decision taken by compilers of The Sunday Times’ influentia­l Rich List to eject him from the so-called ‘three comma club’ – his billion pound fortune was downgraded to a mere £900m – marked the final indignity.

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