Shanks chief quits to work closer to home
BRITISH waste management firm Shanks Group said yesterday that its chief executive Tom Drury had decided to leave the company by the end of October to pursue other interests.
Drury will join Manchester-based private company, Arrow Global, as chief executive and will become a shareholder in that business, Shanks said.
“Tom Drury has decided to leave the company in order to work closer to his home in Cheshire… A search to find his replacement is underway,” the company said in a statement.
“After four years of living away from the family, I wanted a chance to live with them,” said Drury, who currently commutes from his Knutsford home to the company’s headquarters in Milton Keynes every working week.
Separately, the company said trading for the quarter-ended June was in line with its expectations.
The company, which expects to spend £40-50m in the current financial year as part of its new £150m investment programme, said volumes at its London, Ontario plant continued to increase in line with its ramp-up schedule.
Shares in Shanks, which have gained more than a quarter of their value over the past year, fell 0.24 per cent yesterday to close at 126.80p, valuing the company at around £504m.
THE LONG WAY HOME: WHO COMMUTES FURTHEST?
SHANKS chief executive Tom Drury has cited his lengthy weekly commute as a key driver in his decision to step down from the waste management firm, choosing to take the reins at Arrow Global instead – a debt recovery firm in central Manchester around 20 miles from his family home. But how does Drury’s life on the road compare to some of the business world’s weariest commuters?
Tom Drury, chief executive of Shanks Group
Currently commutes every Monday and Friday between his family home in Knutsford, Greater Manchester, and Shanks headquarters in Milton Keynes – a close-to 300 mile round trip along the M6 taking more than two hours each way.
WINNER: Howard Stringer, Sony chief executive
Spans three continents and almost 7,000 miles to travel between his base in New York and Sony’s global headquarters in Tokyo. Add a family in London, and Stringer’s commute becomes even more daunting – but just think of the air miles.
Brian Moynihan, Bank of America
One of the key questions facing incoming BofA president Brian Moynihan when he took the role in 2009 was whether he would relocate from Boston to the bank’s Charlotte, North Carolina headquarters – an 850-mile trek or 1hr30 flight.
Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland
Since his election in 2005, the Lib Dem has been the MP with the longest commute to the House of Commons, making the 1,400 mile round trip to Westminster every week, on top of regular travel around his widely dispersed constituency.