Postal strike: The men in the spotlight

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Adam Crozier, chief executive of Royal Mail

Adam Crozier hates being in the spotlight but it's been difficult to avoid given that, at 45, he has been chief executive of three of the highest-profile organisations in Britain.

At the Royal Mail his pay package attracted the headlines "obscene" and "immoral" when it emerged that, as 2,500 post offices were closing in 2007, he was entitled to more than £3m in pay and bonuses.

His career progression has been startling: from graduate trainee with Mars-Pedigree, through advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi to the chief executive's chair at the Football Association – all before he was 40.

The softly spoken Scotsman attributes it to "thrawn", meaning taking on the difficult, and also to always "staying calm and thinking clearly under intense pressure". Inevitably, he's made enemies along the way. "Put it this way, I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire," one unnamed former FA executive has been quoted as saying.

Born in Falkirk, and raised on the Isle of Bute, Crozier attended a comprehensive and aspired to be a footballer. A business degree from Heriot-Watt University and a job with Pedigree Petfoods followed. At 23, while working in the advertising department of the Daily Telegraph, he falsified his sales figures, something he has since shrugged off as a youthful indiscretion.

Married to Annette, with whom he has two daughters, he keeps his home life private.

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU

Rightwing detractors decry him as an anachronistic firebrand cast in the Scargill mould. But Billy Hayes, 56, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, eschews the comparison. After all, he has pointed out, he's got "more hair than Arthur – just about", and prefers "Chardonnay and vol-au-vents" to beer and sandwiches.

Nevertheless, the Merseyside-born trade unionist, who tramped Liverpool's streets as a postman for 18 years, appears to attract the tag "militant". He is routinely included in lists of the most influential leftwingers. As one of the less privileged "Bash Street Kids" at his Croxteth primary school, he was regularly "caned" by a teacher whom he has accused of singling out those displaying communist leanings.

He became an apprentice welder, and worked for John West Salmon.

But he possesses an erudite air, listing George Orwell as one of his favourite writers and Rosa Parks, the black US civil rights activist who refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger, as his heroine.

Perhaps the most significant turning point in his life was throwing in his welding job to "do a Kerouac" around Europe in the 1970s. On his return to Liverpool he worked as a postman. Since then his rise through the union ranks has been steady.

Married to Dian, a former union representative with BT, they have two children.

[Donk]

The softly spoken Scotsman attributes it to "thrawn", meaning taking on the difficult, and also to always "staying calm and thinking clearly under intense pressure".

I think Merriam Webster's definition is slightly more apt.

Main Entry: thrawn
Pronunciation: \ˈthrän\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English (Scots) thrawin, from past participle of Middle English thrawen to twist
Date: 15th century

chiefly Scottish : lacking in pleasing or attractive qualities: as a : perverse, recalcitrant b : crooked, misshapen

— thrawn·ly adverb, chiefly Scottish







And being a Scot and having heard the word used all my life I know which definition is the more accurate.

[Stormproof]

while working in the advertising department of the Daily Telegraph, he falsified his sales figures, something he has since shrugged off as a youthful indiscretion.

Youthful indiscretion?? Still falsifying figures Its about time you grew up then Adam :cfo :cfo :cfo :cfo