Black Horse Ride by Ivan Fallon

Author:Ivan Fallon [Ivan Fallon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849549448
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2015-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

It meant that over the next seven months, when he found himself at the epicentre of the biggest crisis in Lloyds’s – and Britain’s – financial history, Tookey was still not formally confirmed in the CFO role. Nor was he on the main board. While the financial world was falling apart, the acting CFO of Lloyds had to go through the humiliating process of being interviewed for what all his colleagues regarded as his own job. At one point the headhunter said to him: ‘Tell me, if you were to get the job, what would you do in the first 100 days?’ She seemed blissfully unaware that Tookey had already been doing the job for months and shadowing it for two years. Furiously, he began listing the hundred things he had already done in 100 days before he stalked off in a rage to complain to Daniels, swearing he would never deal with that particular headhunter again.

Meanwhile Daniels was spreading his net wide, talking to a range of other potential candidates for arguably the most critical role in the bank. When Weir was moved, Daniels told Victor Blank that his priority was to have a CFO beside him who was skilled in mergers and acquisitions and who could present credibly to shareholders. These, he added, were not Tookey’s strengths, although he was developing them and he wanted to give him the chance to grow into the job. Blank on the other hand had great confidence in Tookey who, he believed, had a fine track record and had done well at Lloyds. But at the end of the day it had to be Daniels’s decision.

Eventually Daniels came down to three names, including Tookey and John Cryan, a City high-flier who was then CFO of UBS where he was highly regarded. The third candidate on the list was a surprise: Matthew Greenburgh, the high-rolling investment banker from Merrill Lynch and the same man who had tried to sell Northern Rock to Lloyds. When Daniels showed him the list, an astonished Blank told him bluntly that, much as he admired Greenburgh as a practitioner, he felt he was ‘wholly inappropriate’ for the job.

Daniels retorted that Greenburgh was a ‘sharp tool’ who would be brilliant at communicating with the City, but the Lloyds chairman refused even to consider it. ‘This is a very big institution where you have to be on top of a vast array of financial controls and disciplines, including treasury, budgets, capital requirements, regulations and all the rest,’ he told Daniels. It required specialist, technical skills and practical experience, particularly of financial and management accounting, which Greenburgh, who had grown up as an investment banker and deal-maker, simply did not have. ‘You must have someone who gives you accurate and balanced information, who you can trust completely to be on top of very detailed figures. Matthew has different skills.’

Blank never knew how Daniels broke the news to Greenburgh and was left wondering why the Merrill Lynch executive, with his huge bonuses and his love of deals, would even consider it.

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