In honour of our awards issue – and with tongue just a little bit in cheek – this column wishes to hand out prizes to some of the great and the good who have been interviewed (or almost interviewed) in its pages in the past few years. Karina Robinson hands out the gongs.
Most Elusive
“We seek him here, we seek him there,Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.Is he in Heaven? Is he in Hell?That demmed elusive Pimpernel!’’
Thus runs the verse about the Scarlet Pimpernel, the fictitious English character who saved victims of the French Revolution. Thus Luqman Arnold, chief executive of Abbey National and former chief executive of Swiss bank UBS.
First interviewed over lunch in December 2001, the man with Cupid’s bow lips was carefully diplomatic in talking about the Swiss: “The Swiss are fair, honest and surprisingly open to giving the benefit of the doubt to outsiders.’’
Not that open. He was fired within the month – and the profile had to be pulled before The Banker went to press. Some say he was pushed out due to disagreements with chairman Marcel Ospel over the bank’s role in saving Swissair, the national airline. But he probably sealed his fate by saying in the interview that his favourite skiing resorts are Lech and Zürs in Austria and Chamonix in France. “Oh, and Switzerland, mustn’t forget Switzerland,’’ he muttered at the time. “Zermatt.’’ That addition came too late.
In his current role transforming Abbey National, the UK’s sixth largest bank, he has proved equally elusive. But The Banker looks forward to interviewing him in 2004.
Runner-up for the Most Elusive award is Phil Purcell, head of Morgan Stanley. After two years, a promised interview in New York in May evaporated, as Securities and Exchange chairman William Donaldson rebuked the chief executive for telling a conference that he did not see anything in the settlement on conflicts of interest that should concern retail investors about the US investment bank. Any more publicity, be it negative or positive, was unwelcome, and the normally discreet Mr Purcell bowed out.
As Warren Buffett, the chairman of investment group Berkshire Hathaway, said at the time: “Bigshots don’t like to be on the front page of the paper with their behaviour being questioned; they don’t mind paying the fines that much.’’
The industry settlement was $1.4bn, with Morgan Stanley paying the lowest fine. The Banker looks forward to interviewing Mr Purcell at a less disconcerting time.
Most Courteous
David Li, chief executive of Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia, wins the prize. He was horror-stricken when I criticised the nursery-type food on offer at Marks Club, the London eatery located in a discreet townhouse in Mayfair where we were meeting, and has promised to make up for it. (In fact, this only highlights my faux pas, as my mother’s warning about never disparaging food when it is an invitation rings in my ears.)
There is, of course, a downside to Mr Li’s exquisite manners; he is probably too polite to refuse requests. He serves on about 44 boards, committees and institutes, ranging from the New York Federal Reserve’s International Capital Markets Committee to the Salvation Army Advisory Board. And tact and delicacy have not stopped him from taking a stand against the restraints on press freedom proposed by the Hong Kong government and abandoned amid mass protests in July.
Most Condescending
Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, chairman of NM Rothschild and a member of the successful 190-year old banking dynasty. After 40 minutes of telling me that everything was “going well”, “doing well” and “with our name we can get in anywhere”, Sir Evelyn asked whether he was easy to interview.
“No, hellish,” I said. He laughed. “Shall I tell you how charming you are, what lovely pearls [you are wearing]?” he said.
(I am not averse to compliments, I hasten to add. Others, though, like David Li, have managed to be both informative about their institutions and flattering about my jewellery, a compliment which was not taken amiss. The difference lies in the tone).
Sir Evelyn is now handing over to Baron David de Rothschild. The sigh of relief heard in the august City offices of the firm was tempered by his last words: “I’m not giving up; I’m not retiring or anything. Things happen in this world where people are called back.”
Best Dressed
This goes to Vicente Fox, president of Mexico. His trademark cowboy boots, grey flannels and checked shirt are unmatchable – and in stark contrast to the uniform grey suit worn by most heads of state. The message his clothes give out – I am not like the technocrats or the Institutional Revolutionary Party members who have run Mexico before – comes out clear and strong. The anorak, however, has to go.
At least when The Banker met him he faced no problems in boarding the presidential jet, which is where the interview took place. The opposition, at one point, prohibited him from flying abroad, accusing him of not spending enough time dealing with Mexico’s home-grown problems.
Most Courageous
“You’ll trash us, but we’ll do it,” said the spokesman for Henning Schulte-Noelle, chairman of the management board at Allianz at the time, in response to a request for an interview. This was after the shares of the world’s largest insurance group fell to a nine-year low and its Dresdner Bank division posted a record E2bn loss for the first nine months of 2002.
Mr Schulte-Noelle, now chairman of the supervisory board, dealt with a barrage of questions about the Dresdner acquisition, about profit warnings and about rumoured resignations, with admirable sang-froid.
Biggest Blush
Peter Sutherland, chairman of Goldman Sachs International and former head of the World Trade Organisation, turned a remarkable colour when asked about the courtship of his beautiful Spanish wife. (She obviously found the fresh-faced Irishman, who could not speak her language and whose prospects seemed far from promising at the time, irresistible). Yet in a multi-faceted career, he has faced many more overwhelming moments, notably when he witnessed a Korean farmer attempting to disembowel himself with a pitchfork in protest at the Uruguay trade round. In fact, if there were a prize for Most Fascinating, he would be the winner – a lunch with him ranges over everything from global competition issues to the ethics of abortion.
Runner-up in the blush stakes is Jacob Wallenberg, chairman of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) and vice-chairman of Investor, the family holding company that controls blue-chip Swedish multinationals. When I reported the words of a colleague – that Mr Wallenberg’s children used to interrupt board meetings “like a version of the Sound of Music but with a more benevolent father” – he blushed deeply, denied it and said the children are only sometimes around at weekends.
Most Spartan
Emilio Botín, chairman of Santander Central Hispano, keeps trim by eating only an apple and a few almonds at lunch and playing daily rounds of early morning golf. One can see where that level of control comes from.
When asked what his father (from whom he inherited a small, provincial bank) would say if he could see him now, Mr Botín answered: “He would ask: ‘What are your profit forecasts for the next four years?’” Still, the cigar he lit at breakfast did seem rather less spartan…