Clear the board
THE Equitable's president, John Sclater, has been keeping his head down. His state- ment with the accounts was couched in pained terms — the Equitable had got used to applause, he said, and was now being blamed — and at the annual meeting, which was stormy, he was content to praise the managing director for his leadership. Mr Sclater is a banker with a string of City chairmanships behind him, and he should know that there are times when the chair- man must lead. This time, the executives and the lawyers have been left to fight the battle, and the rest of us are left to wonder whether Mr Sclater can see what the fuss is about. Someone may need to explain it to him. Perhaps his non-executive directors will oblige, though they are not as a whole out of the top drawer. By next year's meet- ing I would hope to see the Equitable with a new president and a stronger board, unless a takeover bidder has arrived to scoop it up. At this point I should declare my hand as a policy-holder. If Sir Richard Scott is right, the directors have discretion to allot the entire bonus pool to me, so long as they can show that they are acting ratio- nally. Well, of course they would be, but this, too, needs changing.
Previous page
