CITY VIEWS: DOES ANDY HORNBY DESERVE TO BE MADE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF ALLIANCE BOOTS?
ANDREW SWAN AON
“Everyone needs a job, don’t they? The fact is that he was clearly fairly good at his job despite what happened at HBOS and it would be wrong for him to take the blame for everyone else at the bank. Alliance Boots wouldn’t have given him the chief executive role if he wasn’t capable of doing the job, so I say good luck to him.”
STUART PETHURST PARTNERSHIP ASSURANCE
MARTIN WEST LCH CLEARNET “In this case, I’d say let bygones be bygones. How badly did he really do at HBOS compared to everyone else in the banking sector? He took more risks than a building society would have done but it’s not as if they broke any rules. The government didn’t complain or investigate either. Hornby is probably very good at his job.”
CHRIS DEW ASSET MANAGER
“Fair play to him, I say. He must have done well at interview. If I was an investor I might be a little worried but you can always take your funds out and invest them somewhere else if you don’t like it. It will depend on the quality of the people working beneath him really. I’m not sure I’d want to work for him though.”