Royal Mail begins search to deliver Leighton's successor

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.j ... ton121.xml

By Mark Kleinman and Jamie and Dunkley
Last Updated: 11:54pm BST 20/09/2008

Royal Mail will this week start a formal process to find a successor to its chairman, Allan Leighton, who will step down from the role early next year.

Leighton, who leaves in March, is Royal Mail's longest serving chairman, having joined in 2002, and has overseen a period of modernisation at the company, which was making a loss of £300m a year when he joined.

The choice of successor will take on extra significance next month, when the Hooper Report on the future of the postal services market is published.
advertisement

The report will examine the degree to which private capital should be involved in the service. Richard Hooper, who is chairing the review, is known to have visited Post Danmark, which sold a 22 per cent stake to CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm.

Among Leighton's successes at Royal Mail have been the growth of Parcelforce, which makes £30m a year, and General Logistics Services, which has become the fastest-growing parcels business in the world. The closure of 2,500 post offices has also stemmed the flow of cash away from the business.

Leighton's tenure has also been tinged with controversy, including the disclosure that Royal Mail had paid £4m compensation to customers in the first three months of this year. This came as chief executive Adam Crozier collected a £3m package while overseeing the post office closure programme. MPs have indicated that a further 4,000 post offices could be closed.

The government extended Leighton's tenure last year, ending a search for his successor after approaches to several businessmen, including Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman of J Sainsbury, and Sir John Parker, the National Grid's chairman, failed. Hampton had been widely seen as the front-runner but it is believed he rejected the offer as the government refused to commit itself to full privatisation.

Sources close to Royal Mail have indicated that Leighton's successor is unlikely to include any of Royal Mail's non-executive directors.

Headhunter Zygos has been appointed to oversee the six-month recruitment process

[BELIAL]

Guess we can all rest easily now that Zygos is sourcing our new masters. Consultants with a proven track record ex Merril Lynch,ex Goldman Sachs, ex Lehman bros.
Magnum's the lot of them slippery and dangerous,look cheap but cost you a fortune in the long run

[k979aaa]

Can i put forward a name MR BLOBBY is pink like the pink shirted oink talk's the same (load of bullsh*t no one can understand) and the kid's will love MR BLOBBY!. Allen :lfo could well follow in the footstep's of MR BLOBBY and disappear up noel's crinkly bottom!. :lfo