Richard Branson Nominated Britain's Most Impressive Industrialist
Richard Branson has succeeded in toppling his long-time rival, Sir Colin Marshall, Chairman of British Airways, as Britain's most impressive industrialist. He comes first in the 1997 MORI's annual survey of Britain's Captains of Industry, nominated spontaneously by 25 per cent of his peers.
Their roles have now been dramatically reversed. While Richard Branson rises from third place in 1996 with nominations from nine per cent of Britain's business leaders, Sir Colin has fallen from the top slot in 1996 to third place in the 1997 poll.
Sir Richard Greenbury also makes a major impact on Britain's industrialists this year. He has jumped from the relative obscurity of seventh place in 1996 with only five per cent of the vote, to centre stage just behind Richard Branson, with 21 per cent of the vote.
Some way behind, Lord Maclaurin of Tesco continues to impress his peers. As in 1996, he is ranked fourth, a position he gained after a dramatic rise from 17th place.
John Browne of BP, a relative outsider in 15th position in 1996 has risen in stature among this audience; he now sits in fifth place. Conversely, Lord Simon, one of his predecessors and winner in 1996 and 1995, has been relegated to 12th place since becoming a Minister.
Robert Ayling, Sir Colin Marshall's successor, is among the high flyers featured in the list. He moves from joint ninth place in 1996 to seventh, alongside Sir George Simpson of GEC.
Sir Brian Pitman who has masterminded the recent success of Lloyds Bank is the most prominent newcomer this year in sixth place. Other new blood gaining recognition for the first time includes Sir William Purves of HSBC, Gerry Robinson of Granada, Terry Leehy of Tesco, Niall Fitzgerald of Unilever and Greg Hutchins of Tomkins Holdings.
Casualties from the 1996 line-up include Archie Norman of ASDA, who has become an MP, Sir Peter Bonfield of BT and Sir Richard Evans of British Aerospace.
Technical details
MORI has been running the annual Captains of Industry survey for 14 years. The 1997 study was conducted face-to-face between September and November 1997 among chairmen, chief executives and managing directors of Britain's top companies. The sample was supplied by FT / Extel and covered the top 500 UK companies by turnover and the top 100 financial organisations by capital employed.
