Worst Interview Site In December, the Russian embassy booked reformist Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin – on a flying visit to London – into the trendy Sanderson Hotel. Those were exciting times in Russia, with the government split over whether to pursue market reforms or a larger role for the state in what amounted to a return to Communist days.
Alexei Kudrin: swan chair and socks
The Banker’s only demand was for a quiet table where a tape recorder and a translator could work. Dragged first into the conservatory with its picturesque waterfall, then into the bar with its boisterous crowd and finally into the dining room with its loud music, we were in despair.
At last Mr Kudrin, in contact by phone from the floors above, with a great deal of reluctance, agreed to be interviewed in his room. Surely not a big deal, when most ministers are booked in large suites with extra space for meetings? In this case, space was at a premium.
The minister received me in his suit. And socks. We turned sideways to get around the mammoth bed to the other side of the all-white room, averting our eyes from the painting above the bed. He sat in a swan chair with huge golden wings; I balanced on a fold-out chair trying to avoid knee contact; the translator perched on the bed, narrowly avoiding falling back into its huge, snowy depths.
“My resignation is not looming on the horizon – sometimes you succeed more, sometimes less,” was one of the minister’s statements, while an atmosphere of Anglo-Russian embarrassment filled the room. The Russian embassy reportedly now books ministers into Claridge’s hotel.
Biggest Elephant in the Room
During the interview with the chairwoman of Spanish bank Banesto, Ana Patricia Botín, her father’s presence loomed like an elephant in the room. Although on her own merits she has been doing an excellent job at the bank (which is owned by Santander) Madrid’s chattering classes believe Banesto is being kept independent rather than merged with its parent, to allow Ms Botín time to prove her abilities. Thus she could be a prime candidate to take over from her 70-year-old father, Emilio Botín, head of Santander.
Ana Patricia Botín: paternal pachyderms
Mr Botín, a visionary banker whose latest move was the takeover of the UK’s Abbey, is obsessive about his health and has reportedly given up his cigar habit to stay in power and finish his Santander project. Whether or not he wants to hand over to his daughter – he is tough and uncompromising with her, according to a family friend – Ms Botín will always have the elephant occupying a large space in the room.
Most Luxurious Moustache
Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif is the recipient of this award, due to his ownership of a handsome moustache reminiscent of actor Omar Sharif’s. He also displayed the actor’s cool demeanour, except when quizzed on allegations that political liberalisation in Egypt was flip-flopping – as President Hosni Mubarak called for multi-candidate presidential elections, yet allowed the arrest of leading opponent Ayman Nour.
Ahmed Nazif: facial hair but no ‘flip-flopping’
A heated Mr Nazif said: “Ayman Nour’s case was overblown. He is the leader of one of the opposition parties who has been arrested on a criminal charge. If this happened in the UK, would you say this is political flip-flopping?!” Mr Nour is currently on trial while out on bail.
Mr Nazif is also runner-up for Biggest Elephant in the Room. In his case, there were two: Hosni Mubarak loomed large, as did his son Gamal Mubarak, reportedly the main support for Mr Nazif and his reformist cabinet, as well as a prospective successor to his father.
Best Food
When The Banker met Société Générale chairman and CEO Daniel Bouton, he insisted on lunch in the bank’s utilitarian headquarters in the conurbation of La Défense, rather than a superb Parisian restaurant. While London is not the culinary vacuum that President Jacques Chirac asserts (“You can’t trust people who cook as badly as that,” he said), I was still grateful to be hopping across the Channel to sample some French delights.
Daniel Bouton: great respect for haute cuisine
The SocGen kitchen did not let us down, serving langoustine rôtie et nage de moule aux légumes followed by a mousse de sandre, sauce vin blanc aux crustacés et trompettes.
Mr Bouton suggested we halt the interview for five minutes in order to enjoy the langoustine, interrupting an explanation of how his bank had the best 2004 return on equity of large French banks. The French obsession with food is alive and well.
Most Tenacious
GMA, as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is known in the nickname-mad Philippines, found her own husband to be a dispensable asset. He had been her biggest supporter in her political career, but as allegations that he received gambling payoffs arose, she ignored what she had told The Banker in July – that closing his law office would ensure there was no conflict of interest with her job – and sent him into exile, along with her son.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo: a powerful grasp
She is, therefore, recipient of the Most Tenacious award for retaining her grasp on the seat of power even after her husband’s exile, the broadcast of taped calls relating to electoral fraud, the resignation of almost her entire cabinet in July, and calls from supporters such as former president Corazon Aquino and the influential Makati Business Club for her to step down.
Most Elusive
Two years ago, the then Morgan Stanley chairman and CEO Phil Purcell won this prize, having consistently cancelled scheduled interviews. But in December 2004, he finally gave a promised interview, where he talked about his future plans for the bank: “All those things I have told you are priorities; you can come back in a year and ask about them. If we haven’t done something, there will have been a good reason. So I am not just yack yacking.”
The Banker graciously concedes his resignation in June 2005 under extreme pressure is a valid reason for not completing them.
This year’s award for Most Elusive goes to Joe Ackermann. The head of Deutsche Bank kindly agreed to a Karina’s Kolumn interview at a Madrid conference (with a former president of Mexico as a witness to the exchange). Within weeks, one of his underlings sent a message refusing the promised interview.
A chance encounter with the head of one of the bank’s business units a couple of weeks later yielded the info that Dr Ackermann did not show up for a dinner that he and his wife were to host for 150 CEOs and chairmen on the occasion of the Chelsea Flower Show. Instead, he left that night for a non-urgent morning meeting in Germany.
The Banker consoles itself that it is in good company when it comes to being spurned.
Most Memorable Residence
The interview with Chile’s president, Ricardo Lagos, was due to take place on the presidential jet en route to a sparsely inhabited part of the country. Instead, the day before, it was changed to his private dining room in the Palacio de la Moneda in Santiago, amid the bombshell of an unexpected cabinet reshuffle that had the clamouring press troops packed into the courtyard of the palace.
Ricardo Lagos: a highly unlikely retirement plan
The presidential headquarters is one of the finest neoclassical buildings in Latin America. The jackbooted soldiers guarding it brought to mind the 1973 coup d’état by Augusto Pinochet that saw the (disputed) suicide of President Salvador Allende. Mr Lagos dismissed Mr Pinochet as “an historic figure with no influence”.
The president, a fluent English speaker with a PhD in economics from Duke University in the US, also gets the award for Most Absurd Retirement Plans. He suggested with an impish grin that, after the 2005 elections, when he retires, he would spend time reading books.
Having helped turn Chile into one of the world’s most successful open economies, it stretches credulity that he will spend the coming years doing anything other than sitting on high-level panels and boards.