Boycott Expansys, Stonehaven Associates, Yell Group

Bob Wigley is another businessman for whom the corporate boardroom appears to be a natural habitat.

He is Chairman of Expansys, Stonehaven Associates and Yell Group. Between 2008 and 2009 Bob was Chairman of Sovereign Reversions plc.

Expansys is an online electronics store selling mobile phones, sat navs, laptop tvs etc.

Yell Group own and produce Yellow Pages and the yell.com web site.

Stonehaven LLP is a recruitment and personnel advisory firm. They are focused on boardroom and senior level recruiting and management assessment in the Corporate, Institutional and Financial Services sectors.

Sovereign Reversions operate in the equity release market, convincing retired people to borrow money using the equity in their property as collateral. This means that Sovereign can pick up the property cheap later.

This is how this practice is described on Sovereign's web site.

Sovereign Reversions buys property assets at a discount to vacant possession value. It benefits from the elimination of this discount when the homeowners leave their home or die, and from the long term appreciation of property values.

They actually boast about the 'discount' and 'benefits' they get when people move into care or die. I thought I had found a sick one when I wrote about Nick Prest's arms dealing through Cohort PLC but I think this may be worse.

Bob Wigley was appointed as Ambassador for UK business by the Prime Minister in 2010.

Bob is on the Advisory Board of the venture capital firm Bluegem LLP and is the European Financial Services Operating partner of the venture capital firm Advent International. Bob is the former chairman of Merrill Lynch EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). He held a number of management positions at Merrill Lynch, serving from 2003 to 2004 as chairman of EMEA Corporate Banking, global co-head of Telecom and Media Investment Banking in 2002, co-head of U.K. Investment Banking in 2001 and co-head of Corporate Broking in 2000. He was educated at Exeter School and the University of Bath. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

He is Chairman of the National Education Employer Partnership Taskforce. He is Chairman of the Green Investment Bank Commission and on the International Advisory Council of the International Centre for Financial Regulation. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Cranfield School of Management’s Doughty Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, the Advisory Council of Business for New Europe and is a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University and Chairman of Oxford University’s Centre for Corporate Reputation. In 2008, he chaired a panel of leading London financial services company CEO’s for the incoming Mayor of London, Boris Johnson producing a major report on how to maintain London’s competitiveness in global terms for the decade ahead and as a reward now sits on the Mayor’s Panel of Economic Advisers and the Advisory Council of TheCityUK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and is Master of the Court of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and has a business degree and an honorary doctorate from Bath University.

On 18th October, Bob Wigley signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Bob Wigley is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Expansys, Stonehaven Associates, Yell Group. There are lots of recruitment agencies out there, just steer your personnel people in other directions.






This post marks the completion of the entries on each of the companies represented on The Offending Letter of 18th October. These posts will now be revised, improved, clarified, have sources added and linked to, kept up to date with any new information that comes to light on the companies and the signatories and generally made easier to find and index by search engines on the web using what knowledge of SEO I have picked up over the last decade of working in the online search and affiliate marketing industry.

Please let me know if anything on this site is or becomes out of date or wrong.

Boycott Robert Walters PLC

Robert Walters plc is a professional recruitment consultancy that focuses on placing high calibre professionals into permanent, contract and temporary positions. Established in 1985 by current Chief Executive Officer, Robert Walters, Robert Walters plc today has 41 offices in 20 countries. Robert Walters PLC acquired Dunhill Management Services in 2001, and launched Walters Interim, its junior professional contract recruitment business into France in 2005, Belgium in 2006 and the Netherlands in 2008. In February 2008, the Group acquired Talent Spotter, a specialist recruitment business headquartered in China with offices in Shanghai and Suzhou.

They opened an office in Seoul this year. That must be a hairy placed to work with tension building again between North and South Korea, and with Sarah Palin unable to identify friend from foe.
Robert Walters is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Robert Walters PLC

After graduating with a degree in economics and politics in 1975, Robert joined Touche Ross. In 1978 he joined Michael Page International plc, initially working in its commerce division and subsequently set up and ran its public practice unit. In 1982 he set up and managed its New York office. He resigned in 1984 and founded the business of Robert Walters in 1985.

On 18th October, Robert Walters signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Robert Walters is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Robert Walters PLC. THere are lots of recruitment agencies out there, just steer your personnel people in other directions.

Boycott Sage Software

Sage produce business software and services. The range includes software to manage business' finances, run the payroll, manage customer and supplier relationships, plan the business and support your HR function. In the UK, they provide software and services to over 760,000 small and medium-sized businesses.

This software ranges from accounts, payroll, forecasting and business intelligence to customer relationship management, e-business and help for start-ups.

Sage's services include Excel Support, HR Advice, Health and Safety Advice and training courses.

It is the world's third largest supplier of enterprise resource planning software (behind Oracle and SAP), the largest supplier to small businesses, and has 6.1 million customers worldwide.

Paul Walker joined the company by accident 20 years ago. Born and raised in Sheffield, he qualified as an accountant with Arthur Young, “doing bits and bobs to do with computers”. He soon felt the urge to try something more entrepreneurial.

In 1984 Walker was introduced to David Goldman, who had spent 20 years running a printing business in Newcastle. He had seen the business potential of a book-keeping software package created by academics and students at Newcastle University.

That's right, Sage was set up on the back of the intellectual property of a state-subsidised body.

Sage’s co-founders included Paul Muller, an American computer specialist who worked on the Apollo moonshots. Muller set up a computer business while lecturing on astronomy at Newcastle University.

He worked with students including Graham Wylie, who created the first piece of Sage software. Muller became Sage’s technical director, leaving the marketing of the business to Goldman.
Paul Walker joined Sage in 1984 and was appointed Chief Executive in 1994. He stepped down with a reported £21M exit settlement in October this year. He had earlier join the boards of Experian and Diageo.

Just before he left Sage, on 18th October, Paul Walker signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Paul Walker is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott all Sage products and services.

This is an easy one to boycott unless you run your own business or are an accountant, as Sage is a standard accountancy tool. There are however alternatives available including the aforementioned Oracle and SAP.

Boycott Fuller's Beer, Pubs and Hotels

Fuller's have been brewing beer at the Griffin Brewery in Brentford since 1845. Their brands include London Pride, ESB, Discovery and Honeydew. They also own the Gales' range of beer following their purchase and closure of Gales' Brewery in hampshire in 2005. Fuller's has an estate of approximately 360 pubs split between managed and tenanted houses mostly in London and the South East but also in Avon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and the West Midlands.


Fuller's also own 6 hotels; The Chamberlain Hotel, in the City, London; The Fox & Goose Hotel, Ealing; The Mad Hatter Hotel, Nr Blackfriars' Bridge London; The Red Lion Hotel, Uxbridge; The Santuary House, Westminster and the White Hart in Hampton wick.

Michael Turner is Executive Chairman of Fuller, Smith and Turner. He is a fifth-generation descendant of John Turner, who co-founded the Fuller's brewing empire in 1845.

Michael is an Old Etonian who then went on to Harvard Business School. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Whitney. He joined in the company in 1978. Initially he ran the Wine Division as Wine Director becoming Marketing Director in 1988, Managing Director in 1992, Chief Executive in 2002 and Chairman in 2007.

On 18th October, Michael Turner signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Michael Turner is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott all Fuller's beers, pubs and hotels especially over the festive season. There's always a better pub not far away.

Boycott ASOS (As Seen On Screen)

ASOS.com describe themselves as "the UK's largest independent online fashion and beauty retailer. With over 35,000 branded and own label products available and over 1500 new lines added each week, ASOS.com is rapidly becoming the market leader in the UK online fashion world" which in plain speech means it's a website with a warehouse at the back-end selling clothes and beauty products.

Aimed primarily at fashion forward 16-34 year olds, ASOS.com attracts over 6.9 million unique visitors a month and has 2.9 million registered users.

Nick Robertson of ASOS (centre)

Nick Robertson is the Chief Executive of Asos. He failed to get anything above a "D" at his A-levels while a student at the independent Canford School in Dorset. He had a comfortable upbringing in suburban Surrey financed by his father's career as a successful advertising executive.

Low and behold in the small world of London based advertising agencies Nick started his career in 1987 with Young and Rubicam and in 1991 moved to Carat, the UK’s largest media planning and buying agency. In 1995 he co-founded Entertainment Marketing, a marketing services business, and in 2000 he co-founded ASOS.com.

On 18th October, Nick Robertson signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Nick Robertson is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Asos.com.

Boycott AVEVA, Cohort PLC and The Shephard Group

Nick Prest signed the offending letter of 18th October as Chairman of AVEVA. He is also Chairman of Cohort plc and Chairman of The Shephard Group, so these companies are profiled as well.

Please note AVEVA is not a typo for Aviva, the insurance company previous known as Norwich Union; the two are not connected.

There is a disturbing theme to Nick Prest's companies.

AVEVA provides engineering IT software to the plant, power and marine industries. It is now listed on the FTSE250 but AVEVA's origins lie in the public sector with public money building it up to be a the centre of excellence it became.

The Computer-Aided Design Centre (or CADCentre as it was more commonly referred to, and later formally became) was created in Cambridge UK in 1967 by the UK Ministry of Technology. Its mission was to develop computer-aided design techniques and promote their take-up by British industry. Its first director was Arthur Llewelyn who initially contracted out the recruitment and management of specialist staff to ICL.

The centre carried out much pioneering CAD research, and many of its early staff members went on to become prominent in the worldwide CAD community, such as brothers Dick Newell and Martin Newell. Dick Newell oversaw the creation of the extremely successful Plant Design Management System (PDMS) for 3D process plant design, and later co-founded two very successful software companies - Cambridge Interactive Systems (CIS) which was well known from its Medusa 2D/3D CAD system, and Smallworld with its eponymous Smallworld GIS (Geographical Information System). Martin Newell later went to the University of Utah where he did pioneering 3D solid modelling work; he was also one of the progenitors of PostScript.

Along with the Cambridge Science Park, CADCentre was arguably the most important single factor in what became known as the Cambridge Phenomenon - the transformation of Cambridge from a distinguished and beautiful but rather sleepy small University town into one of the world's high technology centres within a few short years in the 1980s. Many people who had worked at CADCentre went on to found their own successful software companies.

CADCentre was privatised in 1983, was the subject of a management buyout in 1994 and became a publicly quoted company in 1996. It changed its name to AVEVA in 2001.

In January 2006 Nick Prest joined the board of AVEVA plc becoming Chairman in April 2006.

Cohort plc, describes itself as a 'defence technical services business'.

Cohort plc is the parent company for three innovative, agile and responsive businesses operating in defence and related markets. It aims to add real value through the experience and contacts of its senior team while providing a light-touch but effective governance framework. Its objective is to deliver consistent and growing value to shareholders through its three operating subsidiaries: MASS, SCS and SEA.

MASS is an independent UK systems house with a defence and aerospace market focus. Formed in 1983, the company is based near St Neots in Cambridgeshire with a second facility in Lincoln. MASS joined Cohort in August 2006.

SCS provides independent technical advice and services primarily but not exclusively to the defence and security sectors. Formed in 1982, the company is based in Theale, Berkshire. SCS became the first member of the group in February 2006.

SEA (Group) Limited (SEA) is an independent systems engineering and software company operating in defence, aerospace, transport and offshore markets. Formed in 1988, the company is based in Beckington, near Frome, with offices in North Bristol (near MOD). SEA joined Cohort in October 2007.

The Shephard Group has been providing high-quality business intelligence to the aerospace and defence market, through a combination of magazines, online news services, handbooks and global events. Particularly well known within the helicopter, unmanned vehicles, defence electronics, military airpower and civil aviation markets.

The Shephard Group is a global company. In 2008, they operated in Oman, Australia (where they delivered the largest helicopter exhibition in the region), Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Belgium. Of course, the UK is very important to them, and their appointment as the organisers of the official conference for Defence Equipment & Support is a reflection of their imbeddedness with the Ministry of Defence.

Nick Prest, Chairman of AVEVA plc, Cohort plc and Shepherd Group Ltd

After graduating with an MA from Oxford, Nick Prest began his career as an administrative civil servant in the MOD in 1974. After an MBA course at Bradford Business School, Nick then moved within the MOD to the Defence Export Services Organisation. In 1982, he left the MOD to take a marketing role at United Scientific Holdings, predecessor of Alvis plc (Alvis). He was appointed marketing director in 1985, with overall responsibility for the order intake of the Alvis Group worldwide, and became chief executive in 1989. Alvis developed into one of the world's leading contractors in the specialist field of armoured vehicles before being acquired by BAE Systems in 2004. Nick was appointed chairman of Alvis in 1996.

In the 1990s Nick also held a prominent role in arms industry affairs in the UK, acting as Chairman of the Defence Manufacturers Association and Vice-Chairman of the Defence Industries Council. He left Alvis following its acquisition by BAE Systems in 2004. In January 2006 he joined the board of AVEVA plc becoming Chairman in April 2006. In March 2006 he was appointed Chairman of Cohort plc. In December 2007 he became Chairman of Shephard Group, a privately owned arms and aerospace media group. He is a member of the Council of ADS, the UK trade association serving the arms, aerospace, space and security industries. He was chairman of the Defence Manufacturers Association from 2001 to 2004. Nick is chairman of AVEVA plc, Cohort plc and Shepherd Group Ltd.

He was awarded a CBE in 2001 for services to the arms industry, also known as 'killing people abroad'.

The number of people who have died as a result of the activites of Nick Prest is unknown but what is known is that on 18th October, Nick Prest, former MOD civil servant and chairman of a company created with public funds and privatised to suit the dogma of the government in 1983, signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

This would be fair enough if this were to involve reduced public expenditure on companies like Nick's and the rest of the arms industry, but somehow I don't think that's on either his or the government's agenda.

For this reason Nick Prest is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott AVEVA plc, Cohort plc and Shepherd Group Ltd. In fact we should work with CATT to shut down Cohort plc and Shepherd Group Ltd as they deal in death.

Boycott Hammerson, Brent Cross Centre, Birmingham Bullring

Hammerson is a property development and investment company. It invests mainly in offices and retail premises.

This means we can boycott Hammerson by staying away from the shopping centres it owns.

Hammerson have interests in several major retail developments, including:

* Brent Cross, London, England
* Cabot Circus, Bristol, England
* Espace Saint-Quentin, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France
* Highcross, Leicester, England
* Italie 2, Paris, France
* Les 3 Fontaines, Cergy-Pontoise, France
* O'Parinor, Aulnay-sous-Bois, France
* The Bullring, Birmingham, England
* The Oracle, Reading, England
* WestQuay, Southampton, England
* Union Square Shopping Centre, Aberdeen, Scotland

Hammerson own six London office buildings, which provide 105,000 m² of prime accommodation including 125 Old Broad Street and 99 Bishopsgate.

The firm switched to Real Estate Investment Trust status when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. This means that they can buy a share of a retail premises without buying the premises themselves. This also means that they pay no tax on their income, or on their capital gains, but do pay on their dividend income the properties generate. Hammerson describe this arrangement as 'tax-efficient'. I think we know what that means.

John Nelson, a Chartered Accountant, was appointed Chairman of Hammerson in 2005. He had joined the board the year before. He is also a non-executive deputy chairman, Kingfisher (annual pay, £63,000); non-executive director, BT (annual pay, £50,000). His pay at Hammerson is £200,000 per year. (source http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article587653.ece )

On 18th October, John Nelson signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason John Nelson is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott all Hammerson properties including the Brent Cross Centre, The Birmingham Bullring and Cabot Circus, Bristol.

Boycott Mitie & Dalkia

Mitie is a Group operating through numerous trading names. The brands to be boycotted are shown in bold.

Mitie Group is a British outsourcing and asset management company with their head office in Bristol. MITIE operates mainly in the UK and Ireland with a growing presence in Europe. It provides infrastructure consultancy, facilities management, property maintenance and a range of energy management services to its customers.

Their strategy of growth through acquisition has seen MITIE acquire several businesses over the past few years and in 2006 it acquired Initial Security, a leading security business. Following on in 2007 MITIE acquired Robert Prettie & Co. Ltd for £32.7m and incorporated the specialist plumbing, heating and mechanical services business into their Property Services division. In 2008 MITIE continued its acquisitions strategy through the acquisition of Catering Partnership, and DW Tilley. The purchase of DW Tilley allowed MITIE to extend their roofing services nation-wide. 2009 saw the acquisition of Dalkia Facilities Management for £130m to bolster its Technical Facilities Management capability and an expansion into Social Housing with the purchase of Environmental Property Services (EPS) for £38.5m. In 2010, MITIE acquired the integrated facilities management business of Dalkia in Ireland.

Who is paying for all this? We are through Mitie's public sector contracts.

Mitie is split into four divisions: Facilities Management, Technical Facilities Management, Property Management and Asset Management.

Mitie, whose annual report for 2010 notes: "The public sector faces the prospect of considerable pressure on expenditure in the coming years. We believe that this will create significant opportunities for the outsourcing market as contracts will tend to become larger and broader in scope . . . we believe that in subsequent years we will benefit from the efficiency agenda that is expected to impact central and local government."

So when Ruby McGregor-Smith in an interview with the Evening Standard in April waxed "lyrical about the huge potential opportunities that every outsourcing company in the land is eyeing following next week's General Election." That's our money, jobs and services that Ruby was eyeing up in the way a vulture eyes up a dying lamb. To say these people feed on the misery of others is truly not an overstatement.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/markets/article.html?in_article_id=503561&in_page_id=3#ixzz15fwk82X4

Around 40% of all Mitie's work is in the public sector, spanning healthcare, social housing and providing security for Britain's courts. For a relatively low-profile company, Mitie also has a lot of high-profile private sector customers. Its staff guard Marks & Spencer stores and the British Museum, as well as cleaning for Royal Bank of Scotland, Brittany Ferries and Everton Football Club.

National interest, or vested interests?

Outsourcing is a con and Mitie are in it for the long haul. The argument presented in favour of outsourcing is that it is cheaper to get someone else to do something for you than to do it yourself. This may be true if the task involves a technical complexity that you would not want tackle yourself; most of us bring in a plumber when we need one after all. But large scale business and public sector outsourcing does not work like this. The jobs that are outsourced to parasites like Mitie are the low-skill, low-pay, non decison-making jobs that overpaid CEOs think are beneath them to even manage let alone do. This is treating people as cattle or pawns on a chessboard, to be sacrificed for the good of the Queen.

Speaking of whom, Ruby McGregor-Smith has been Chief Executive Officer of Mitie Group plc since March 30, 2007. Previously, she served as Chief Executive of Mitie Services (Retail) Ltd. She served as Chief Operating Officer of Mitie Group plc from September 9, 2005 to March 30, 2007 and its Group Finance Director from December 2002 to April 2006. Prior to that, she was employed in senior financial posts at Babcock International Group PLC and Serco Group PLC. She has been an Executive Director of Mitie Group PLC since December 2, 2002. Ruby McGregor-Smith has been an Independent Non-Executive Director of Michael Page International plc. since May 23, 2007. After school and sixth-form college, she studied economics at Kingston Polytechnic, then joined accountancy firm BDO before leaping into the world of outsourcing by joining Serco in 1991. She climbed the Serco ladder for nine years in a variety of finance and operational roles.

Her current Total Annual Pay Package at Mitie is £1,037,000 (Business Week).

On 18th October, Ruby McGregor-Smith signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's. She was no doubt thinking of the lucrative contracts her tory friends would be passing her way as they sacked underpaid public servants and employed Mitie at twice the cost and half the service.

For this reason Ruby McGregor-Smith is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott all Mitie Businesses.

Boycott BT

There can't be many people in the UK that don't know and have had to deal with BT. This information is provided mainly for overseas visitors.

BT provides communications solutions and services, Operating in more than 170 countries. Their principal activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher value broadband and internet products and services.

BT is the current name of what was formerly British Telecom, formely British Telecommunications, formerly the telecommunication part of the General Post Office. The organisation that became BT was owned by the British people until 1982, when in a blaze of publicity it became the first part of the nation's 'family silver' (quote Lord Stockton) to be handed over to investors and asset strippers at below value.

One of the things that prevents people from completely boycotting BT is there strangehold on the local loop, the line that run from your home or business to the telecom provider's network. Local loop unbundling is addressing this but there is another way to bypass BT.

I moved home in March 2008 and at my previous address I receive telephone and broadband services from Tiscali, but they rented the line from BT so I was effectively paying BT even though I had given up their services a year earlier due to appauling service from their call centre in Bangalore who spent a month denying my report of a fault on the line even though we had to have several conversations about it on my mobile because trying to talk on the house phone was impossible due to the bad line. Yes, you did read that right.

Anyway after that I moved to Tiscali and wanted to take them with me when I moved to my current address but here's the thing, the house had no landline connection. The previous occupant, who had been here over 50 years, used a mobile for phone calls and had cable broadband installed for accessing the Internet. All it took for me to have a non-BT house was to add a phone service to the cable broadband service and it was done.

I won't say I never have problems but they are nothing as compared to the nightmare I had with BT.

Ian Livingston was appointed chief executive of BT Group on June 1st 2008.

When appointed he was offered a basic salary of £850,000, up from the £554,000 he received as head of BT Retail. On top of this, he could expect to add £1.7 million in annual bonuses, £1.7million as a deferred bonus in shares that vest after three years, and £2.55 million in incentive shares if the group hits its top performance targets, taking the total to £6.8 million.

In May 2010 Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) voted overwhelming for a full strike ballot after rejecting a 2pc pay rise. The union, which represents 55,000 BT employees called for a 5pc rise.

Staff were angry that Mr Livingston's bonus more than tripled to £1.2m, taking his total pay to £2.1m. He will also collect £1.2m worth of shares if he stays with the company for a further three years. A year earlier Mr Livingston's total pay was £1.2m after he collected a bonus of £343,000 in the wake of the company's second-ever full-year loss.

Let's remember this company was once a national asset. Now it is a cash cow for executives. Someone should 'Tell Sid'.

Previously, he was chief executive of BT Retail, a position he held from February 2005. Prior to this, Ian was group finance director for BT Group from April 2002.

Before joining BT, Ian was group finance director of the Dixons Group from 1997. He joined Dixons in 1991 and his career with the electrical retailer spanned a number of operational and financial roles, both in the UK and overseas.

Earlier in his career Ian worked for 3i Group and the Bank of America International. He was previously a director of Hilton Group plc (now Ladbrokes plc) and also a director of Freeserve from its inception.

Ian is also a non-executive director of Celtic plc althoguh he lives in Elstree. He holds a BA in economics from Manchester University and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1987.

On 18th October, Ian Livingston signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's. This would have been unthinkable were BT still in public hands and it's board answerable to the public.

For this reason Ian Livingston is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott all the BT Group's Businesses.

Boycott Hornby, Motability and Umeco

Neil Johnson signed the offending letter as Chairman of Umeco, but he is also the Chairman of Hornby and Motability.

Hornby

Hornby is a household name and is famous as the UK brand leader in the model railway hobby. All Hornby manufacture was moved to China in 1995, losing more British jobs.

Motability

Motability Operations is a not-for-profit company that runs the Motability Car Scheme, and more recently, the Powered Wheelchair and Scooter Scheme. The largest fleet operator in the UK and the biggest supplier of used cars to the trade, we are owned by the major banks: Barclays Bank plc, Lloyds Group plc, HSBC Bank plc and Royal Bank of Scotland plc.

Motability sell over 145,000 used cars a year. The number of cars they purchase each year accounts for no less than six per cent of all the new cars sold in the UK.

Umeco

Another tricky one to boycott directly as their supply chain does not involve retail sales, but like ARM Holdings, Umeco can be boycotted through a boycott of the companies they supply. So a significant part of this blog describes Umeco's relationship with other companies. As has become standard practice for this blog, companies and brands to be boycotted are shown in bold.

Umeco describe themselves as 'a leading provider of value-added distribution and supply chain management services, and composite materials primarily to the aerospace and defence, automotive and motorsport and wind turbine industries'.

Umeco is managed through two business streams:-

Umeco Composites - comprises a Structural Materials business and a Process Materials business. With seven operating units located throughout the UK, Europe and the US, it provides a range of services, products, design expertise and tooling solutions principally to the aerospace market and other users of advanced composite materials.

Customers include Boeing, Airbus, BAE Systems, manufacturers of wind turbine blades, a number of manufacturers of high performance super cars and Formula 1 teams.

Umeco Supply Chain - a leading international provider of value-added distribution and supply chain outsourcing services to customers in the aerospace & defence market. With its specialisation in the supply of small and medium value components and sophisticated IT systems, its growing global customer base can enjoy significant operational, cost and working capital benefits. The Supply Chain businesses trade globally as Pattonair.

Customers include Rolls-Royce plc, BAE Systems, Safran Group, Parker Aerospace, Goodrich, Thales Aerospace, Turbomeca, ATK, Lockheed Martin and the US Department of Defense.

Umeco started in 1917 with the name University Motor and Engineering Company Limited, and it is an acronym of this title that is the source of the Umeco name. For many years the Group traded as a motor vehicle distributor in the south of England, before acquiring various businesses involved in the electrical and marine industries.

In 1983, Umeco made its first entry into the aerospace sector when it acquired Fluid Transfer Limited, a manufacturer of aircraft refuelling equipment. This was followed in 1987 by the acquisition of Pattonair, a specialist distributor of components to the aerospace sector. With a developing specialisation in the aerospace sector, the businesses involved in other industrial sectors were gradually disposed of.

During the 1990s, increasingly sophisticated services began to be offered to aerospace customers as expectations of service grew beyond the basic role of a distributor. The Group expanded its capabilities in order to provide direct line feed, kitting and service provider facilities.

In addition to acquisitions, significant growth has been achieved, most notably through the long term contract with Rolls-Royce plc originally signed in November 1999. Now extended, the contract will now run until December 2015. Under this contract, the Group provides a dedicated logistics service to manage the supply of a wide range of components to Rolls-Royce plc's European aerospace operations. Recent extensions to the contract, including that signed in November 2007, have led to a broader range of parts and services being supplied to Rolls-Royce plc.

Umeco's Supply Chain activities were expanded in November 2005 through the acquisition of Provest (now renamed Pattonair), based in Italy. This acquisition was funded by a 4 for 9 rights issue, which raised £48.4 million, net of expenses. In France, Pattonair announced major long term contracts with Thales and Turbomeca in December 2006 and February 2007 respectively.

More recently, in November 2008 Pattonair in North America announced it had secured a long term contract with ATK.

In March 1999, Aerovac was acquired and provided the Group with its first composites activity, focused principally on the European composite market. Coverage of the global composites market was enhanced in September 2000 with the acquisition of Richmond. In May 2004, the Group completed the acquisition of ACG, a leading supplier of advanced composite materials to the motorsport, automotive and aerospace & defence sectors with manufacturing operations in the UK and the US.

In August 2007, the Group acquired JD Lincoln. Based at two sites in California, JD Lincoln formulates and manufactures a range of pre-preg materials primarily used by aerospace tier 2 suppliers for the manufacture of composite interior structures of commercial aircraft.

In December 2008, IPM was acquired. Based in Northern Italy, IPM is a leading manufacturer of vacuum bagging films for the composites industry. Aerovac and Richmond are major customers for IPM, who onward supply to the rapidly growing wind energy market.

During the year to March 2008, Umeco undertook a strategic review as a result of which the Board decided to focus the Group on its larger and faster growing business activities of Composites and Supply Chain. This led to the divestment in November 2007 of the Group's smallest business stream, Repair & Overhaul; and, in March 2008, of the Group's aerospace chemicals distribution businesses. The cash consideration received from this divestment programme was £49.0 million.

In August 2009 Brian McGowan retired as Chairman and in October Neil Johnson was appointed to replace him.
Neil Anthony Johnson, OBE has a long and complex history of board room operations. He started his business career in the engineering and motor industry. He served as a Director at Jaguar, Land Rover and Rover Group.

He was the Chief Executive Officer for the RAC Holdings from 1994 to 1999.

He was also the Managing Director of European Automotive Operations for British Aerospace.

He has been the Non-Executive Chairman of Hornby PLC since December 22, 2000.

He is currently Chairman of Motability Finance Limited (MFL) and Motability Operations Group (a financial business owned by the UK clearing banks).

He was the Chairman of Autologic Holdings Plc from May 25, 2006 to October 2007.

He was Chairman of RSM Tenon Group plc (formerly, Tenon Group PLC) until December 5, 2006.

He has been a Non Executive Director of Hornby plc. since July 1, 1998 and UMECO PLC since October 19, 2009.

He served as Senior Independent Non-Executive Director of Autologic Holdings Plc from January 23, 2006 to October 2007.

He served as a Director of Tenon Group plc and RSM Tenon Group plc. He served as a Director of Tenon Ltd.

In the 1980's he was seconded to the Ministry of Defence for a Command Appointment. He also directed the Engineering Employers Federation ("EEF") for a term of office in the early 1990's.

Until January 2010, he was a Director of Cybit Holdings Plc.

He has been Chairman of UMECO PLC since October 19, 2009 when he left Promethean World PLC and his 2009 pay and stock option package of £306,745 (source: Business Week).

He is also a member of a Ministry of Defence Advisory Board and an 'Independent' Member of the Metropolitan Police Authority where in 2009/10 he attended 12 out of 35 meetings he was due to attend. His claims of 'Independence' will be tarnished by his public support for the financial policies of George Osborne.

He was HM Representative Deputy Lieutenant for the City of Westminster for fourteen years until 2007, and also served for five years as a member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Panel for the Citizen’s Charter.

On 18th October, Neil Johnson signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Neil Johnson is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Hornby, Motability Operations Group and Umeco through their customer like Rolls-Royce.



NOTE: An earlier version of the post stated the Hornby also owned the Meccano brand. Meccano have been in touch with me and assured me that this is not the case. I apologise for this error which was caused by Meccano appearing prominently on the Hornby corporate website and my misinterpretation of this. Although Meccano was devised by Frank Hornby, of the Hornby Brand Meccano became a separate company some time in the past ans has no connection with Neil Johnson. The call to boycott Meccano is therefore rescinded.

Boycott Tullow Oil

This entry is included for completeness so that the companies of all 35 fat cats can be profiled. It is not completely clear what the mechanics of boycotting Tullow Oil would involve as I've been unable to establish their supply chain.

Tullow Oil is the largest independent oil company in Britain and has a market valuation of $13bn (£7.8bn) (2009 valuation). It operates in 22 countries. Its largest activities are in Africa, where it first explored gas fields in Senegal and has discovered new oil provinces in Ghana and Uganda, produces oil and gas in five countries and has exploration projects in 13 countries.

In 2000 it bought BP's North Sea Gas Fields for £200m. Tullow Oil's big gamble came in 2004 when it bought Energy Africa. The deal doubled the company's size and gave it a large presence in Africa.

Tullow Oil plc is one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in Europe. The Group has interests in over 85 exploration and production licences across 23 countries and focuses on four regions: Africa, Europe, South Asia and South America. The Group has production from eight countries and two development projects in Ghana and Uganda where it has discovered new oil provinces.

Aidan Heavey is from Castlerea, Co. Roscommon and educated at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare and at University College, Dublin. He trained with R. J. Kidney & Co. from 1974 to 1978 when he qualified as an accountant. He left R. J. Kidney & Co. in 1979 to join Aer Lingus as a Financial Controller before joining Tullow Engineering in 1981.

Tullow Engineering was a small family-owned firm based near Dublin. The firm had a subsidiary, Tullow Oil, running fuel oil tankers. Heavey decided to buy out the subsidiary, relaunching the company in 1985 as an oil-producing company with horizons far beyond the shores of Ireland.

He got the idea after being tipped off by a banker who told him that the world was littered with valuable oil fields that were ignored by big companies because they were too small. Heavey plumped for Senegal to base his new venture, even though he was not entirely sure where it was.

He mortgaged himself up to the hilt and sold his collection of vintage cars to raise the cash for the new company.

A founding Director and shareholder of the Group, Aidan Heavey has played a key role in the development of Tullow from its formation in 1985, to its current international status as a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production group. A Chartered Accountant, he previously held roles in the airline and engineering sectors in Ireland. Aidan is a director of Traidlinks, an Irish-based charity established to develop and promote enterprise and diminish poverty in the developing world, particularly Africa.

Aidan Heavey's pay at Tullow Oil is £1,525,378 as of 2009.

On 18th October, Aidan Heavey signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Aidan Heavey is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Tullow Oil.

 Added 16th July 2013 : -

When  looking for something else I came across this page http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/10/21/michael-goves-constituency-receives-over-60000/. 

It would appear Aidan Heavey's links with the Conservative party extend to funding  Michael's Gove's Surrey Heath Constituency to the tune of £10,000 between May 2010 and October 2011. I wonder what he got for that,  I think I'll start investigating some of the other signatories and see which MP's have lined their pockets, or those of their associations, with the cash of people with the aim of destroying our public services.

Boycott ARM Holdings

Another tricky one for a lot of people but this time I can offer some assistance. Some of you may be saying 'Who?'.

Amongst other things ARM make chips that go into phones, PDAs and handheld games consoles. The brands you will have to boycott are shown in BOLD.

ARM Holdings is a British technology company headquartered in Cambridge. The company is best known for its processors, although it also designs, licenses and sells software development tools under the RealView and KEIL brands, systems and platforms, system-on-a-chip infrastructure and software. It is probably the best-known of the Silicon Fen companies. The company was founded as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) and VLSI Technology (as Advanced RISC Machines), intended to further the development of the Acorn RISC Machine's RISC chip, which was originally used in the Acorn Archimedes and is now the processing core for many custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

The company is considered to be market dominant in the field of mobile phone chips.

ARM processors are used as the main CPU for most mobile phones, including those manufactured by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung; many PDAs and handhelds, like the Apple iPod, Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, Game Park GP32 and GamePark Holdings GP2X; as well as many other applications, including GPS navigation devices, digital cameras, digital televisions, network devices and storage. The WLAN processor of Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) is an ARM9.

Unlike other microprocessor corporations such as AMD, Intel, Freescale (formerly Motorola) and Renesas (formerly Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric), ARM only licenses its technology as intellectual property (IP), rather than manufacturing its own CPUs. Thus, there are a few dozen companies making processors based on ARM's designs. Intel, Texas Instruments, Freescale and Renesas have all licensed ARM technology. In 2007, 2.9 billion chips based on an ARM design were manufactured.

The ARM architecture is licensable. Companies that are current or former ARM licensees include Alcatel-Lucent, Apple Inc., Atmel, Broadcom, Cirrus Logic, Digital Equipment Corporation, Freescale, Intel (through DEC), LG, Marvell Technology Group, Microsoft, NEC, Nuvoton, Nvidia, NXP (previously Philips), Oki, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sharp, STMicroelectronics, Symbios Logic, Texas Instruments, VLSI Technology, Yamaha and ZiiLABS.

The iPhone uses a 620MHz ARM CPU.

Warren East was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ARM Holdings in October 2001. For this role he is paid an annual salary of £415,000 and an annual bonus of £286,501. Hence his total annual remuneration is £701,501. Not a lot of recession in his house then.

He joined ARM in 1994 to set up ARM’s consulting business. He was Vice President, Business Operations from February 1998. In October 2000 he was appointed to the board as Chief Operating Officer and in October 2001 was appointed Chief Executive Officer. Before joining ARM he was with Texas Instruments. He is a chartered engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute. He is a non-executive director of Reciva Limited and a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of De La Rue plc. hE was educated at Monmouth School and Oxford University where he studied Engineering
Science, and Cranfield University where he did an MBA.

On 18th October, Warren East signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Warren East is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott those products that use ARM Holdings components, patents, designs and software.

Boycott Arup

This one might be a bit tricky as Arup are not a company with a retail or public facing business, so advice on the merchanics of a boycott would be welcomed. They are included on this site for completeness as I am trying to compile similar information on all the 35 plonkers who think because they make more than the cleaner in their offices that they are entitled to call for wholesale cuts and jobs losses without repercussions.

Arup are an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists offering a broad range of professional services in construction. The firm is present in the Americas, Australasia, East Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and now has over 10,000 staff based in 92 offices in 37 countries.

Arup was founded in Ireland 1946, as the Danish Ove N. Arup, Consulting Engineers by Sir Ove Nyquist Arup. Sir Ove set out to build a firm where professionals of diverse disciplines could work together to produce projects of greater quality than was achievable by them working in isolation. In 1963, together with the architect Philip Dowson, Arup Associates was formed to offer multi-disciplinary architectural and engineering services. In 1970, the firm reformed as "Ove Arup & Partners".

Arup has no shareholders or external investors, and is owned wholly by trusts whose beneficiaries are its past and present employees who receive a share of the firm's operating profit each year.

Arup are best known for their design work for the built environment. Projects to which it has contributed include the Sydney Opera House, which is largely credited with launching Arup into the premier league of engineering consultancies, 30 St Mary Axe, known as The Guerkin, and the famous 'wobbly' Millenium Bridge which opened for one day and had to be closed for two years for repairs.

Philip Dilley joined Arup as a graduate engineer in 1976 and worked his way up the company, with stints in Japan and the Gulf. In 1993 he became Director of Ove Arup & Partners following his successful win of the £700million Kansai International Airport in 1989 and by 2004 he was appointed as Head of Arup’s Europe and Middle East Region where he was responsible for delivering over 50% of the firm’s global turnover.

On 18th October, Philip Dilley signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

This was ironic as Arup sacked 400 people in 2009, so claiming, as the letter did, that the private sector could create replacement jobs for those lost was a triumph of hope over experience for Dilley.

For this reason Philip Dilley is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Arup in any way you can, although in effect it mat be that only those responsible for commissioning building projects will have the opportunity to directly exclude them from the process.

At the time of this posting Philip Dilley is on a tour of China and South Korea as part of a trade delegation with David Cameron, George Osborn, Vince Cable and other signatories to the letter including Stefano Pessina, Executive Chairman of Alliance Boots (registed officce address in Switzerland), Paul Walsh, chief executive of Diageo, Ben Gordon, chief executive of Mothercare (registered office address in the Netherlands), and Bob Wigley, Chairman of Yell Group plc where they will all be spending your taxpayers' money promoting the interests of their companies and not the UK.

We're all in this together? You're having a laugh!

Update 19th January 2011

The tour of the Far East may not have been a great success for Arup as they've just announced that they are sacking 15% of their UK staff. See - Arup Culls 670 UK Jobs - for details. Philip's still there of course.

It would seem that the replacement jobs promised by the 35 signatories to replace the 500,000 lost as a result of the cuts they supported aren't going to come.

Boycott Towergate Insurance

We venture now into the land of the City Fat Cats where hardship means being down to your last billion and the only signs of a recession are more applications for every post you advertise and a wider choice of lapdancer.

Towergate Partnership was founded in 1997 and is Europes largest independently-owned insurance intermediary. Towergate operates through five main areas of operation: Broking (Towergate Risk Solutions), Underwriting (Towergate Underwriting), Networks for independent brokers, Towergate Financial and Paymentshield.

Since 1997, when Towergate entered the insurance market, they have become Europe's largest independently owned insurance intermediary turning over more than £2 billion of gross written premium across their companies. Towergate offer general and specialist insurance for niche markets ranging from holiday homes to private helicopters. Towergate are also the most significant insurance provider to the UK SME market.

In February 2010 for a nominal sum, Towergate bought the John Charcol mortgage broker out of administration, taking with it IT systems and more than 100 staff.

Peter Cullum is a Norfolk born businessman, the executive chairman of Towergate Partnership. His personal fortune is estimated most recently at £1.7 billion.

Cullum began his insurance career in 1969 with the Royal Insurance Group and progressed to sales and marketing positions within Commercial Union and ITT London and Edinburgh where he became marketing director in 1988. At the age of 21, he became the youngest person to pass the Chartered Insurance Institute fellowship examinations. In 1991, Cullum joined Economic Insurance and led their return to profitability in 1993. In December 1993, he led the management buyout of Economic Insurance that was sold in 1995 to Hiscox plc. He joined Hiscox as group marketing director, a role he held until he left in 1997 to create Towergate Underwriting Group.

On 18th October, Peter Cullum signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Peter Cullum is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott all Towergate businesses.

The Co-op Financial Services will cover all your insurance needs without feeding your hard earned money to fat cats like Peter Cullum.


Added 2nd September 2011. Towergate also trade under the name Insurance4carhire. Please boycott this brand as well.

Boycott Dunelm Mill and Pausa Coffee Shops

Dunelm Mill, also known as 'Dunelm Soft Furnishings Ltd', is a British-based home furnishings retailer with over 100 stores and over 40 implant Pausa coffee shops throughout the United Kingdom. One of the largest homewares retailers in United Kingdom Dunelm Mill's headquarters are based on the Fosse Way in Syston in Leicestershire. It also has its own UK Manufacturing Centre for curtains, blinds and accessories also based in Leicester.

Dunelm Mill was founded in 1979 by Bill and Jean Adderley initially trading in home textiles from a market stall in Leicester. The first Dunelm Mill store opened in Churchgate Leicester in 1984 with the first superstore opening in Rotherham in 1991. Bill is still a member of the board.

Will Adderley, Chief Executive Officer, joined Dunelm in 1992 and aftyr leaving university took over the running of the Group from his father in 1996. Nice that he never had to look for a job, unlike millions of others. Will has had everything handed to him on a plate. Will Adderley has decided to relinquish the role of Chief Executive from February 2011, when he will assume the new role of Executive Deputy Chairman, a full-time Board position. Fifteen years of work is clearly too much for him.

On 18th October, Will Adderley signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Will Adderley is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Dunelm Mill and Pausa Coffee Shops.

There are a wealth of alternative places to buy stuff from your home. Let me know your favourite.

Boycott L.K. Bennett

I will admit I was unaware of L.K. Bennett before 18th October 2010. I presume, as a man in his 40s, I am not exactly their target market. I hope the names of the companies on this post make sense. Let me know if there are any mistakes.

L.K.Bennett sell expensive women’s fashion in the UK.

L.K.Bennett was founded in London in 1990 by Linda Kristin Bennett. Bennett learned her trade as a cordwainer at Hackney’s Cordwainers College (now part of the London College of Fashion) after attending Haberdashers’ Aske’s School (fees as at 2010 £11,490 p.a.), Elstree and Reading University, where she read Land Management. Bennett worked on the factory floor for French designer Robert Clergerie and on the shop floor of fashion chains Whistles and Joseph before setting up her first shop in Wimbledon Village, London.

L.K.Bennett originally sold just shoes before adding bags and then clothes and other accessories to its range in 1998. Since the creation of the original store, L.K.Bennett has expanded into an international chain of shops (including in-store concession and outlet stores), with 109 stores in operation in the UK, Jersey, Ireland and France.

Bennett first tried to sell L.K.Bennett in 2004 for a £75m asking price. Four years later, she sold the business to Phoenix Equity Partners and Sirius Equity, a retail and branded luxury goods investment company, in a deal believed to have netted her around £70m. The sale valued the business at £100m.

Robert Bensoussan, co-founder of Sirius Equity, has a history in luxury retail operations. Previously chief executive officer of Jimmy Choo Ltd, he also served as managing director of Gianfranco Ferre and chief executive officer of Christian Lacroix.

Between 1980 and 1984, Robert Bensoussan was responsible for the implementation of the relaunch of the Lacoste brand (Groupe Prouvost) in Brazil; he was also Director of Ready-to-wear & Accessories for Charles Jourdan in Paris from 1984 to 1986. As Director of Sales for Sonia Rykiel (Paris) from 1986 to 1989, Robert Bensoussan was responsible for sales worldwide. Robert Bensoussan joined the Escada Group (Munich) in 1990, as Director of International Sales and member of the management team in Munich. As Chief Executive of Christian Lacroix (Paris) - subsidiary of LVMH – from 1993 to 1997 and Chief Executive of Gianfranco Ferrè (Milan) in 1999 and 2000.

In 1994, Robert Bensoussan joined the Board of Interparfums Inc (New York), a prestige perfume licensing company, listed on the Nasdaq. In 1998, he was retained by Rose Marie Bravo as her personal advisor to work on the repositioning of the Burberry (London) brand in Europe and Asia, concentrating on production and products as well as distribution. In 1999, he put together the Joseph (London) £100 million deal (LBO), bringing as partners Albert Frère (CNP) and LV Capital (LVMH). In November 2001, together with Phoenix Equity Partners, a leading private equity fund management business, Robert Bensoussan set up Equinox Luxury Holdings Ltd which acquired a 51% stake in Jimmy Choo (London).

In July 2008, Sirius Equity and Phoenix Equity Partners bought a large majority control of LK Bennett, the quintessentially English Brand of women’s ready to wear, shoes and accessories for an undisclosed amount.

In addition to his various responsibilities, Robert Bensoussan is a member of the Board of Jimmy Choo, Interparfums (Nasdaq: IPAR), Celio (French Menswear Retail Group, €1 Billion sales), Bremont Watches, and Aurenis (French publishing group).

On 18th October, Robert Bensoussan signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Robert Bensoussan is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott L.K. Bennett. I think we should consider expanding the botcott to include Robert's other business interests, Jimmy Choo, Interparfums, Celio, Bremont Watches, and Aurenis, especially Jimmy Choo as the company has just launched an expensive advertising campaign for a perfume in the run up to Christmas, the main gift buying season.

Boycott Microsoft

Microsoft is one of the giants of the IT industry. It's most well known products include the Windows operating system, the MS Office application set and the X-Box. Microsoft also produce server software, middleware and other software.

Gordon Frazer is the Managing Director at Microsoft UK and is a Vice President of Microsoft International. Gordon was appointed to the UK MD role in July 2006, prior to this appointment he spent four years as Managing Director for Microsoft South Africa. Outside of Microsoft, Gordon is on the UK E-skills Industry Board and the UK CBI Higher Education Task Force.

During his long career at Microsoft Gordon has held many key roles. Before becoming Managing Director for South Africa he was responsible for the Enterprise and Partner Group, focusing on Microsoft’s largest customers and partners in the country. Prior to this, he was head of the Business Solutions Group, working with Microsoft partners to develop and deliver line of business applications to organizations. Gordon joined Microsoft in November 1995 in a marketing role, where he concentrated on intellectual property and software licensing issues.

Before joining Microsoft, Gordon was Technical Director at a software development company and had previously worked in financial services and the mining industry. Gordon holds a Bachelors degree from Rhodes University in South Africa.

On 18th October, Gordon Frazer signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Gordon Frazer is considered to be a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott all Microsoft products.

Microsoft will be one of the hardest companies to boycott due to their saturation of the operating system market. Most people don't buy Microsoft PC products, they find them pre-installed on their new laptop or desktop and either choose not to remove them or don't feel technically capable of removing them.

Alternatives to the main MS products include

Windows > Linux or Apple
MS Office > Open Office (free)
Internet Exp. > Firefox or Google Chrome (see comments below though)
X-Box > Wii or PlayStation Move
Bing > Google

Please suggest others.

Boycott Veetee Rice

After yesterday's complex corporate labyrinth I though I'd keep things a bit more straightforward.

Veetee are one of the largest rice suppliers in the UK retail trade, supplying both Veetee and supermarket own-brands. Veetee are also unique in rice manufacturing, as they are the only company to have factories in both India and Pakistan, making them perfectly place to supply both communities.
Moni Varma had his early education in Ludhiana before moving to Malawi and the UK. He grew up in Malawi. The youngest of eight siblings, he was born to Indian parents, both from business families, but spent his formative years in Africa. After completing his O levels, Varma headed to India to continue his studies, but returned to Malawi soon after with the ultimate view of moving to the UK.

He started as a salesman for a printing firm and demonstrated the passion for business that came to characterise his career. Despite a starting salary of only £30, he was regularly taking home up to five times that with commission. His talent for selling had been recognised, and the desire to study began to recede.

Varma invested £300 in a small machine to manufacture barbed wire - the company desperately needed a salesman but couldn't afford to pay. Not for the last time in his career, Moni Varma took the risk and the job - solely on commission and a stake in the company. Within 3 years, capitalising on the developing country's need for steel, Varma had grown the company enormously and had become a major player in the burgeoning steel industry.

In 1987 he founded Veetee Rice.

On 18th October, Moni Varma signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Moni Varma is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Veetee Rice.

On the 19th October Moni Varma was interviewed on Channel 4 News anout the letter. This is a transcript of the converstion -

Jon Snow: Alan Johnson’s told us that this letter is just a wheeze got up by Conservative Party central office. Do you feel part of a wheeze?

Moni Varma: No not really.

Snow: Who asked you to sign?

Varma: Who asked me to sign? I think, you know I have several friends there who…but I agree with the policy. Let’s forget about who asked me to sign. I can name that if that makes any difference, right? I can name the person. Stanley Fink who is now the treasurer of the party mentioned and then I looked through all the aspects of the cut, I fully agree that somebody has got to take this measure.

Stanley Fink is a Hedge Fund Manager and Treasurer of the Conservative Party. It looks like the organisation of the letter came not from the business people themselves but from Tory Central Office, not that anyone would be surprised at that. What would be interesting would be to know which business people were asked and refused to sign it.

This is not the first time Veetee has run into trouble.

In 2002 Veetee Rice had its knuckles rapped by advertising watchdogs for "misleading" magazine ads. Veetee's problems came after rival Tilda complained about a trade ad in which it boasted being the number one supplier to UK retailers. Veetee submitted research suggesting its share of the own label rice market was bigger than its competitors. But the ASA noted the ad was for Veetee branded rice and did not say the claim included own label. It asked Veetee not to repeat the ad. The ASA also upheld a complaint that the total weight of rice Veetee sold annually was not enough to make the 360 million servings claimed in the ad. Veetee said it stood by its claims but would abide by the ruling.

In 2006 Veetee Rice Ltd pleaded guilty to contravening regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

On 11 September 2006 Veetee Rice employee Balwinder Singh Aulkh accessed a rice silo and his leg became trapped in the underfloor screw conveyor. He died from his injuries. The company had failed to ensure that dangerous parts of the machinery could not be accessed by members of staff, or that dangerous moving parts were stopped before anyone entered the danger zone. Mike Walters, HSE Principal Inspector in Kent, said: "This incident could so easily have been prevented if Veetee Rice Limited had ensured that a suitable system was in place to prevent access to the silo unless the screw conveyor was electrically isolated. "If the company had fitted a simple padlock on the access hatch to the rice silo - which could have cost as little as £10 or £15 - then this tragic incident would not have happened. The level of fine and costs awarded in this case should act as a stark warning to all employers to take their responsibility for health and safety seriously." Veetee Rice was fined £140,000 and ordered to pay costs of £20,500.

There are many other brands of rice on the market,including Tilda, but be wary of supermarket own brands as these can be Veetee products repackaged. I am still trying to establish which supermarkets Veetee supply and if you know would welcome this information.


Update 7th November 2011

There are two bits of news concerning Moni Varma. Firstly he is apparently suing Lakshmi Mittal over a dispute concerning Nigerian oil fields, and secondly he is reported to be trying to Sharwoods, the food company. If he succeeds in buying Sharwoods the boycott will obviously be extended to include this brand. I'll try to keep an eye on events.

Boycott Britvic and Moneysupermarket.com, Durex, Scholl, Robinsons, Tango, J2O, Pepsi, 7Up, R. Whites Lemonade

This post may seem confusing but that is because Gerald Corbett appears to be a man with his fingers in many pies, so please bear with me.

Britvic plc is a British producer of soft drinks. They are the number two soft drinks producer (by volume and retail sales value) in the UK. The Company owns a number of leading brands in the UK including Britvic itself, R. White's Lemonade, Tango, Robinson's and J2O - as well as being the licensed bottler for PepsiCo products within the UK. In 2008 Britvic launched Gatorade in the UK, after securing the rights to do so from PepsiCo. In May of 2010, Britvic launched a UK exclusive drink called Mountain Dew Energy. It mostly tastes the same as its American counterpart, but has higher contents of caffeine and real sugar. The Company owns a number of leading brands in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, including, Ballygowan water, Britvic, Cidona, MiWadi, and Energise Sport as well as the rights to Pepsi and 7 Up brands in the territory through its bottling agreements with PepsiCo.

Current Brands includes 7 UP franchised from PepsiCo, Amé, J2O, Mountain Dew Energy franchised from PepsiCo, Drench, Gatorade franchised from PepsiCo, Robinsons, Pennine Spring, Pepsi franchised from PepsiCo, Tango, R. White's Lemonade, Purdey's, Red Devil Energy Drink, Shandy Bass, Britvic 55, Really Wild Drinks Company (Only available in Schools) and Idris.

Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC is a British price comparison website-based business specialising in financial services. The website enables consumers to compare prices on a range of products, including mortgages, credit cards and loans. The business was established in 1993 by Simon Nixon (a student at Nottingham University) and Duncan Cameron as a provider of off-line mortgage information to Independent Financial Advisors under the name Mortgage 2000. Since late 2009, comedian Omid Djalili has appeared in adverts for moneysupermarket.com.

SL International is the rapidly growing international consumer healthcare group whose major brands Durex and Scholl are sold in over 50 countries with manufacturing facilities primarily in India, China and Thailand. Gerald is also Chairman of Moneysupermarket.com, a price comparison website which floated in July 2007.

Gerald Corbett is Chairman of Moneysupermarket.com, SSL International plc and Britvic plc.

After studying history at Cambridge University, where he was a foundation scholar, he attended London and Harvard business schools. He joined Boston Consulting Group, which advises on corporate strategy, in the mid-1970s. In 1982 he joined electrical retailer Dixons, where he became group Financial Controller and Corporate Finance Director. Since then, he has been a director of 10 public companies and Chairman of four - including Woolworths and Britvic. He was Chief Executive of Railtrack from 1997 to 2006.

In 1993, he became Group Finance Director of Grand Metropolitan, the food and drink giant. In February 1996 in The Mail on Sunday, Patience Wheatcroft identified Corbett as one of business' "high powered hot shots" who would lead British business into the new millennium. When "Grand Met" merged with Guinness to form Diageo, he lost his job to his counterpart at Guinness. Good call Patience.

We'll come back to Diageo in a later post. The draft Diageo posting is even more confusing than this one.

In March 2001, he was at the helm of Woolworths, appointed to oversee the demerger of Woolworths Group from Kingfisher. Once this was completed in August 2001, he remained on the board as Chairman. Woolworths have since gone out of business and Kingfisher are now subject to this boycott.

He is Chairman of the Royal National Institute of the Deaf, the UK's largest Charity representing the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. We are NOT calling on people to boycott the RNID, that would be stupid.

He is also a Non Executive Director of the investment bank and stock broking business, Numis Securities. He is the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire for 2010/11 and is a member of the council of the High Sheriffs Association.

Described by David Freud in his book "Freud in the City" as "immensely approachable, a short and jovial figure, full of impromptu quips relayed to the accompaniment of short, barks of laughter".

On 18th October, Gerald Corbett signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Gerald Corbett is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Moneysupermarket.com, SSL International plc and Britvic plc.

There are other fizzy drinks. There's always confused.com, mates condoms, and I'm sure Lloyds Pharmacy can recommend something for your feet. Other suggestions welcomed.

Update on Moneysupermarket.com as of 20th June 2011.

News has reached me that Moneysupermarket.com will be pausing all online affiliate activity as of Monday 27th June 2011. The official line is that their current affiliate program is being reviewed with an aim to upgrade the channel and improve security measures to minimize invalid transactions. However the statement also says that affiliates will be notified when the program is ready to be reactivated, which implies of course that is deactivating, perhaps temporarily, perhaps not. Sensible affiliates will switch to alternative channels in the meantime and are unlikely to switch back.

Affiliate marketing is key for any online business like Moneysupermarket.com. It's the way they generate traffic, outsource their pre-sales function and gain a good position on search engine return pages when someone types 'price comparison' into Google.

Turning this off could be the beginning of the end for them.

Boycott Ocado

Ocado was founded in January 2002 by Jonathan Faiman, Jason Gissing, and Tim Steiner, former merchant bankers with Goldman Sachs. When the company first started they ran every part of the business themselves. Ocado is a British Internet retailer specialising in groceries, headquartered in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. Although an independent business, Ocado is partly owned by the John Lewis Partnership pension fund.

Ocado deliver Waitrose Goods. Waitrose is a subsiduary of John Lewis.

In September 2006 Michael Grade became non-executive chairman of Ocado, shortly after Goldman Sachs were appointed as financial advisors. This led to perennial speculation that the business would seek a listing on the stock market. In July 2009 Ocado confirmed it was planning a stock market flotation. In November 2008 the John Lewis Partnership transferred its shareholding of 29% into its staff pension fund. It also agreed a five year supply deal with the business, replacing its previous one year rolling deal. This deal was replaced in May 2010 with a 10 year branding and supply agreement. Procter & Gamble took a 1% stake in the company the same year.

Ocado operates in England's South East, South Coast, Midlands, North West and most of Yorkshire.

The online grocer announced total yearly sales up 25% to £427 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of just £9 million.

With the flotation of the company widely regarded as a shambles Ocado shares fell to 146p, a sizeable discount on its 180p July flotation price, which had been slashed from a hoped for 200-275p range in order to get investors to sign up. Analysts remain divided over the merits of the loss-making business which picks customers' orders from a hi-tech warehouse in Hatfield.

As at March this year Ocado had not made a penny in pre-tax profit. Still, the company has got one million-plus customers, including at least half of all London home grocery shopping. Sceptics in the City doubt that Ocado can ever make money, given high delivery costs, and certainly not on orders of less than £100. Of all the companies represented in the shameful list of 35 Chairmen and CEO's this is the one we can shut down.

Tim Steiner is the Chief Executive Officer of Ocado, and a founding director.

Prior to Ocado, Tim spent eight years as a banker at Goldman Sachs. During his time there, he was based in London, Hong Kong and New York in the Fixed Income division. As CEO, Tim oversees all aspects of the business.

Tim Steiner, 39, went to Haberdashers' Aske School in Elstree before reading economics, finance and accountancy at Manchester University. He then worked in fixed income for Goldman Sachs for eight years, meeting Jason Gissing, who did a degree at Worcester College, Oxford, where he was famously in the same Bullingdon Club photograph as Chancellor George Osborne (below).

Jason Gissing of Ocado is shown as number 8, Osbourne is number 1.

On 18th October, Tim Steiner signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor, his business partner's old drinking buddy, to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since the last time the tories took power and tanked the economy in the early 80's.

For this reason Tim is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott Ocado.

You can get everything you need from the Co-op and they don't charge for deliveries.