Group Chief Executive succession

During the year, the Group announced Roger Urwin’s intention to retire with effect from this calendar year end. At the same time, it was announced that Steve Holliday would replace him and be appointed as Deputy Group Chief Executive with effect from 1 April 2006, to ensure a smooth and progressive handover of responsibilities.

A particularly rigorous succession process was put in place by the Chairman. This involved all the Non-executive Directors, not just the members of the Nominations Committee. The process extended over five months and included third party interviews of the internal candidate, benchmarking of external candidates and extensive input of views from existing Executive Directors.