Robson Jam

Telegrammed by The Raver

One of the non-executive directors of the Royal Bank of Scotland is none other than Sir Steve Robson.

 

Robson it will be remembered is the former senior Treasury mandarin who pushed for vertical disaggregation on the railways. 

 

Now he clearly did not do his job in trying to prevent RBS from overextending itself. 

 

Shockingly, the non-execs are surviving the purge of the RBS bosses because, apparently, there is a shortage of candidates. 

 

Surely there are more than enough competent and qualified bankers looking for lucrative part time jobs...

 

 

 

Hong Kong Phoey

Strange goings on at Cross London Rail Links

Having appointed Dr Phil Bennett as interim Director of Technology, the cash chewing project's Executive Chairman, Doug Oakervee, found he was obliged to advertise the position in accordance with Public Sector Guidelines.

For a role that demanded strong IT and project management skills the resulting candidate profile appeared unusually prescriptive; requiring any interested party to be both a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

Rather than placing ads for this demanding and prestigious role in the trades and broadsheets, or appointing a top notch head hunter, it was felt better to circulate details of the vacancy internally and post it discreetly on the Crossrail website.

Unsurprisingly only three people applied for the post.

All were interviewed and, alas, none appointed.

Meanwhile, the venerable Dr Bennett, an old colleague of Oakervee's from Hong Kong days, continues in post on consultancy rates.

Nice work if you can get it.