MEN OF PROPERTY
PORTRAITS OF VICTORIAN men of property line the walls of building
society boardrooms across Britain. Watch chains gleaming across
well-padded waistcoats, sober-suited men with confident, paternal
expressions provide a silent audience for today's directors'
discussions about an uncertain future.
The men around those board tables -- and despite the occasional
lady director, men they overwhelmingly are -- seem to have much in
common with those silent onlookers.
They are successful men -- but rarely through their efforts within
the building society world. It is only in the past five years that
executives of the societies have commonly achieved director status. The
majority of board members are part-timers, non-executives whose careers
have taken them to the top in other parts of the business, professional,
or social world.
In another age, they would have been called 'worthy' men.
In any other 120 [pounds sterling] billion-plus industry in the second
half of the...
