Where are they now?

Published on Saturday 19 December 2009 18:23

MANY business high-flyers who rose to prominence over the past ten years have since faded from the media limelight. As a new decade fast approaches, Kristy Dorsey asks what has become of them

Bill Allan: Missing in action

Since resigning as chief executive of telecoms company Thus in October 2008, Bill Allan seems to have completely disappeared from the Scottish business scene.

Allan joined the company in 1999, when it was still known as ScottishTelecom, following the departure of founder Rod Matthews. Greenock-born Allan took the former ScottishPower telecom subsidiary through a successful flotation in November of that year, and by March 2000, dotcom fervour had driven Thus into the FTSE 100 ranking of the UK's most valuable quoted companies.

The ensuing crash in telecoms and technology stocks took its toll on Thus, and while the company continued to expand, it did not report an operating profit until 2008. Throughout the ups and downs, Allan remained a vehement enthusiast of the company's technology and prospects.

Allan and his fellow directors were forced to leave the company after failing to fend off a takeover bid from Cable & Wireless. This would have been particularly bitter for Allan, who previously worked as an executive at Cable & Wireless and had been critical of his former employers since leaving.

Janette Anderson: In a man's world

She came to prominence at First Engineering, the rail maintenance operation now known as Babcock Rail. She was only the second female graduate hired by accountants Arthur Andersen in Scotland when she qualified as a chartered accountant in 1987.

She moved into the rail industry in the 1990s, working at ScotRail and then Railtrack, Network Rail's predecessor. She was appointed chief executive of First Engineering in 2003 by Peterhouse, the support services group that bought Network Rail in 2002. She led the Lanarkshire-based firm after it was sold to Babcock International in 2004. She left with a reported 300,000 pay-off in 2007 but served until recently on the Babcock International executive committee. She set up her own consultancy, Anderson Associates, in June 2008, is a non-executive director of engineering consulting group Grontmij.

Amanda Harvie: Advocating business

She was named chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise in 2003, making her the first woman and the youngest executive to lead the lobbying organisation.

She began her career in public relatation before moving on to become a regional manager at The Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust.

The ebullient Harvie, who was chief executive of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce before joining SFE, was credited during her tenure for widening the group's membership base and helping to set up the Scottish Executive's Financial Services Strategy Group.

She was recently appointed to the panel advising the Tory party on proposals for overhauling UK financial regulation.

Kevin Dorren: From hi-tech to low-cal

The former golden boy of Scottish technology, is focusing his efforts these days on helping dieters win the battle of the bulge.

As chief executive of Orbital Software, Dorren led the knowledge management specialist from its early stages in 1996 to an 80 million flotation in October 2000. However, the company's shares quickly fell. Dorren left the business in July 2001, and soon after Orbital was taken over for less than the value of its bank account by Surrey rival Sopheon.

Dorren set up his own consultancy, Sowilo Partners, to advise technology start-ups. In 2003 he teamed up with his lawyer, Hannah Sutter, to form low-carb food venture Go Lower. He left that business at the end of 2008 to set up Diet Chef, which employs 40 people at Newbridge in Edinburgh serving meals to 25,000 UK customers.

Martin Ritchie: Going for goal

He and four other former employees of computer giant ICL set up Spider Systems after ICL closed its development centre in Dalkeith in 1983. They built their networking development firm up to 250 employees with turnover of 25 million before selling Spider to Shiva Corporation for 50m in 1995, launching former managing director Ritchie into the role of one of Scotland's leading tech gurus. Ritchie embraced the role of business angel, investing in start-up technology firms including Storetext, Voxar and Pentland Systems, the latter of which was sold to US component manufacturer Curtiss-Wright in early 2008. Ritchie is chairman of Falkirk FC which he helped rescue from liquidation in 1998.

Richard Emanuel: Sunshine calling

At the age of 23, he took out a 3,000 loan to launch mobile phone shop chain DX Communications with then-partners Chris Gorman and John Whyte. The trio sold the business in 1999 to BT, giving Emanuel an 18 million share of the 42m proceeds.

The mobile phone entrepreneur has re-invested that cash into a number of business and property holdings, including his home in Monaco. However, the 41-year-old Glasgow native has remained involved in the mobile phone industry. This year he sold the UK arm of Total Repair Solutions, a mobile phone repair business based in Renfrewshire, to AIM-listed Regenersis for 6.25m.