As boss of Royal Bank of Scotland, Ross McEwan is an old hand at dealing with a curveball or two, but the question of whether he thinks drugs play a role in the success of London’s technology scene must be a new one even for him. At an event to promote a new start-up scheme supported by the bank, Edie Lush, a presenter, asked Mr McEwan if he thought London had something similar to the “hippies . . . drugs and music” which she says helped Silicon Valley to thrive. The RBS chief executive diplomatically described what he believed was “special” about the capital’s entrepreneurial environment, adding: “I don’t think it’s the drugs.”
Promises, promises
Greg Secker, an “entrepreneur, philanthopist and international speaker” was a multimillionaire by his twenties, according to his website, which promises to teach others how to become filthy rich with only an internet connection and some trading nous. Would-be day traders may be given pause for thought by the advertising watchdog, which has found that the company made unsubstantiated claims about the potential riches. The company, whose website features a picture of a £270,000 Lamborghini Aventador, below, claimed in a Facebook ad clients would “learn how to make £3.5 million over the next 15 years”.
Flying under the radar
Picking out a good day to bury bad news is one of the great crafts of the dark arts of spin. Given the amount of bad news that Flybe is about to report on the impact of competition from larger airlines and the railways, the consumer getting poorer and its self-made IT systems headache, it seems cute timing that the regional carrier’s full-year results will be published on general election day tomorrow.
Mixing business and family
Lloyd Blankfein, the Goldman Sachs boss who, six years after joining Twitter, has finally composed his first tweets, has almost 21,000 followers but only follows one other Twitter account: Be Mixed, a “zero-calorie mixer that is delicious, refreshing and natural”. A strange choice? Perhaps not. One of the co-founders is Cristina Ros Blankfein, his daughter-in-law.
Business big shot
Name Carole Cran
Age 47
Position Chief finance officer-designate, Forth Ports
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One of the most senior Scottish female executives in the FTSE 250 is leaving her job as chief financial officer at Aggreko. After 13 years with the temporary power supplier, Carole Cran has resigned to take up the same role at Forth Ports, where she is replacing the retiring Stuart Paterson, who is leaving at the end of this year.
Ms Cran, a chartered accountant who trained with KPMG, joined the Aggreko board in 2014, having held a variety of finance roles since joining in 2004. She was named the finance director of the year at the UK Stock Market Awards this year. The opportunity to work closer to her family home in Edinburgh, where Forth Ports has its headquarters, is understood to have been an attraction in her new post.