I meet Tim Horlick at his South Kensington home. He has just come
off an overnight flight from New York, and I am rather late. If he
is irritated, he does an excellent job hiding it.
In fact, he is notably friendly and easy going, the perfect foil,
one might think, for his famously forthright fund manager wife
Nicola.
Those who know him say Horlick is indeed affable in most
situations, however he is the first to admit that in the workplace
he can be "very demanding". "He's a very punchy guy," says a former
colleague. "His great strength is that he wants to do things
quickly but he also has a tendency for hiring and firing that
suggests 'If you're not for me you're against me.'"
At his former employer Salomon Smith Barney, Horlick wasted no
time getting rid of people he considered not up to the task. But...
