City profiles

Ross McEwan

The departing RBS boss clearly likes a challenge, said Lucy Burton in The Daily Telegraph. Having completed one of the biggest corporate turnarounds in British history, he’s off to fix Australia’s “scandal-hit finance sector”. Ross McEwan, a New Zealander, is taking over at National Australia Bank, which was singled out for particular condemnation in a recent Royal Commission inquiry into banking misconduct. Ironically, he was headhunted for the RBS job eight years ago because he had spent much of his career in Australia, so was deemed “untainted” by the 2008 financial crisis; the Aussies, it seems, were not so squeakyclean after all. Nevertheless, McEwan’s experience of restructuring and his proven ability to navigate politically choppy waters should stand him in good stead.

Alfie Deyes

“In YouTube years, Alfie Deyes is an elder statesman,” said Emma Jacobs in the FT. At just 25, he has “marked his vlogging decade”, chalking up more than 11 million subscribers to his video channels. Brighton-based Deyes attributes his success to his followers’ “nosy interest” in a “very mundane, boring person”, with a girlfriend (another famous vlogger, Zoella) and a dog. Both sought-after brand “influencers”, the couple recently set up an agency, A to Z Creatives, to maintain their edge in the fiercely competitive vlogging market. The 12-strong team is a kind of “chumocracy”, but Deyes isn’t worried about that. Ed Sheeran recently told him that he’d hired a lot of his friends: they were the only ones honest enough to scotch “stupid ideas”.