Opinion divided among PR experts as to difference payback will make

Published on Thursday 18 June 2009 23:13

A LEADING public relations expert last night said Sir Fred Goodwin's decision to forego more than £210,000 of his pension would not make a "blind bit of difference" to his beleaguered public image.

However, recruitment experts said the former bank boss had a good chance of getting another job.

The ex-RBS chief agreed to reduce his pension payouts from 555,000 to 342,500 a year after public and government anger at the size of the deal.

Executive Headhunters managing director Phil Sharp said Sir Fred had "very good" chances of getting another job.

He said: "It wasn't solely down to him, all the other banks are in the same sort of bother.

"His business network must be absolutely huge; he could add an awful lot to an organisation.

"A lot of organisations wouldn't touch him with a barge-pole. But people in his wider business network, his friends, could be his route to other organisations."

Sir Fred would be most likely to find employment in a non-executive or advisory role at a private company, Mr Sharp said. Public firms would have too tough a time explaining the choice to shareholders, he explained.

Andrew Pullman, managing director of human resources consultancy People Risk Solutions, said: "I think he will end up with a job somewhere, perhaps a non-executive director-type role. After lying low for a bit I expect he'll do something quiet behind the scenes. Like all these things, it blows over."

However, PR expert Max Clifford suggested Sir Fred was "making a gesture in the right direction for all the wrong reasons in an attempt to repair his reputation.

He said: "It's purely a public relations activity. It seems designed to lessen the animosity felt all over Britain about him. I'd be astonished if it made a blind bit of difference.

"If he wanted to change his perception, he had to make a decision voluntarily, right at the start."

Mr Clifford added: "He's a very wealthy man already, and he needed to do something. I suggested he should have given a sizeable chunk to charitable causes."

Holyrood Partnership director Scott Douglas said he believed that "intense pressure" from Sir Fred's wife, Joyce, who wants the family to return to Edinburgh, led to the climbdown.

He said the education of Sir Fred's children, who attended one of Edinburgh's most prestigious private schools, was also a factor in his decision.

"There was no PR value in what he did. He could've quietly shirked away after everything that's gone on with MP's expenses. This puts him back in the public eye. It's pure tokenism.

"I think people will gradually come to accept he wasn't alone in bringing down RBS," Mr Douglas added. "He's probably come back under the radar."