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Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Men Who Run the Weir Group

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By Tony Reading, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Management can make all the difference to a company’s success and thus its share price.

The best companies are those run by talented and experienced leaders with strong vested interests in the success of the business, held in check by a board with sound financial and business acumen. Some of the worst investments to hold are those run by executives collecting fat rewards as the underlying business goes to pot.

In this series, I’m assessing the boardrooms of companies within the FTSE 100 (UKX). I hope to separate the management teams that are worth following from those that are not. Today I am looking at Glasgow-based pump-maker Weir Group .

Here are the key directors:

Director

Position

Lord Smith of Kelvin

(non-exec) Chairman

Keith Cochrane

Chief Executive

Jon Stanton

Finance Director

Another chairmanship
Lord Smith of Kelvin has been chairman since 2002, and has also chaired the bigger FTSE 100 member SSE since 2005. A chartered accountant, he is a former chairman of the BBC and CEO of Morgan Grenfell Asset Management.

In addition to sitting as a crossbench life peer and holding a slew of public service appointments, he is also chairman of the new Green Investment Bank. If I were a Weir shareholder I’d be concerned whether the company gets his full attention.

Results at this job better than the last
Keith Cochrane is also a chartered accountant, and was finance director from 2006 to 2009, when he was elevated to CEO.

Cochrane started his career with Arthur Andersen in Glasgow, and moved to Perth-based Stagecoach after working on its flotation. He rose to become finance director and then CEO of Stagecoach under executive chairman and founder Brian Souter.

This was a turbulent time for Stagecoach, with Cochrane spending half his time in the U.S. trying to turn around its troubled acquisition Coach USA, and he resigned in 2002 after disappointing results.

He joined Scottish Power in 2003 and was effectively deputy finance director, having been passed over for the top job in favor of Simon Lowth, now AstraZeneca‘s finance director. Cochrane’s leadership of Weir has been more fruitful, with the shares tripling during his tenure as CEO.

First FD role
Jon Stanton is in his first finance director role, having joined Weir in 2010 from Ernst & Young. Staunton had joined Ernst & Young in 1988, becoming a partner in 2001, and was in charge of the audit of FTSE 250 engineer Invensis.

Weir has six non-execs. They are an impressive bunch for such a small FTSE 100 constituent, led by senior independent director Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, the former defense secretary and NATO Secretary General. Weir is remarkably well-represented in the House of Lords.

Notably there are non-execs with backgrounds in each of Weir’s three main markets, mining, oil and gas, and power.

I analyze management teams from five different angles to help work out a verdict. Here’s my assessment:

1. Reputation. Management CVs and track record.

Inauspicious.

Score 2/5

2. Performance. Success at the company.

Excellent.

Score 4/5

3. Board Composition. Skills, experience, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Men and Women Who Run Standard Life

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By Tony Reading, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Management can make all the difference to a company’s success and, thus, its share price.

The best companies are those run by talented and experienced leaders with strong vested interests in the success of the business, held in check by a board with sound financial and business acumen. Some of the worst investments to hold are those run by executives collecting fat rewards as the underlying business goes to pot.

In this series, I’m assessing the boardrooms of companies within the FTSE 100. I hope to separate the management teams that are worth following from those that are not. Today, I am looking at Standard Life , the life assurer which is bucking the trend with a special dividend.

Here are the key directors:

Director Position
Gerry Grimstone (non-exec) Chairman
David Nich Chief Executive
Jackie Hunt Finance Director
Keith Skeoch Executive Director

Gerry Grimstone has been chairman since 2007, the year after the former mutual society was floated, but had been a board member since 2003. He knows something about public-to-private ownership transfers, as a former civil servant in the Treasury, who was heavily involved in the early privatisations of the 1980s, such as British Airways. That led to a career in investment banking with Schroders, including vice-chairmanship of its global investment banking activities.

Accountant, not actuary
David Nish’s involvement with Standard Life is also longer than his tenure in the top job. He had been appointed finance director in November 2006, shortly after demutualisation. He was promoted to the CEO role in 2010 on the retirement of Sir Sandy Crombie, who had worked at Standard Life throughout his career. Previously, Mr. Nish was finance director of Scottish Power, having qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mr. Nish has been instrumental in revitalising Standard Life‘s staid culture and executing its “asset light” strategy, refocusing the business as a seller of savings and pension products rather than a traditional life assurer. Under his leadership, Standard Life‘s shares have risen by 85%, far above the FTSE, and even outperforming the mighty Prudential.

Jackie Hunt stepped up from the role of deputy finance director on Mr. Nish’s promotion. She joined the company in 2009, after various finance roles with RSA and Aviva, having worked as an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte.

Economist
Keith Skeoch runs the investment arm of Standard Life. He has been a director since flotation, and was a potential internal candidate for the CEO‘s role. He joined Standard Life in 2009, after 20 years with brokers James Capel, including the role of chief economist.

Standard Life‘s eight non-execs have a broad spread of backgrounds.

I analyse management teams from five different angles to help work out a verdict. Here’s my assessment:

1. Reputation. Management CVs and track record.

Very good.

 Score 4/5
2. Performance. Success at the company.

Outperformed rivals.

 Score 4/5
3. Board Composition. Skills, experience, balance

Strong exec team.

 Score 4/5
4. Remuneration. Fairness of pay, link to performance.

On the high side, but not controversial.

 Score 3/5
5. Directors’ Holdings, compared to their pay.

Substantial.

 Score 4/5

Overall, Standard Life scores 19 out of 25, a very good result. The company …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance