Olympics supremo tasked with solving PPE crisis faces ultimate contest

Lord Deighton once said: “My track record is seeing things through – difficult things.”

Never has this seemed more apt than for his latest task: to steer Britain out of a crisis by tackling the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).

It is a role which, according to the Health Secretary, will be akin to Lord Beaverbrook’s wartime efforts to build aircraft. A former Treasury minister and investment banker, Lord Deighton, 64, who is married and has two sons, is well regarded in Whitehall, and seen as a “doer” who can get big projects off the ground.

His role as chief executive of the 2012 Olympic Games was viewed as hugely successful by ministers, who felt that he turned initial scepticism and uncertainty into a national triumph.

He was rewarded by being appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 New Year honours for services to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Lord Deighton has described the “seven years of total cynicism” he faced as chief executive, adding that the experience had hardened him for his ministerial role in the Treasury.

After completing his schooling at Wallington County Grammar School and reading economics at Cambridge

University, Lord Deighton embarked on a successful and highly lucrative career in the city.

He worked at Security Pacific National Bank and Bank of America before joining Goldman Sachs in 1983, where he remained for more than two decades and was promoted to the roles of partner and chief operating officer for Europe. After delivering the 2012 Olympic Games, he was brought in by the Government to kick-start negotiations on bringing new nuclear power stations to Britain. “The Chancellor called me up during the Paralympics and asked if I’d like to transfer some Olympic magic to the broader economy,” he told The Daily Telegraph in 2013. “In government, it’s one thing to announce things and have policies – it’s quite another to get them done.”

In his role as commercial secretary to the Treasury, Lord Deighton led negotiations with the French nuclear firm EDF.

He also oversaw the government’s National Infrastructure Plan, which included securing private sector investment from countries in the UK and overseas.

In 2016 he took up a new post as chairman of Heathrow, which he used to argue that all Britain’s airports should all be allowed to grow, as long as there was enough demand.