O'Hara earns himself a pizza the action

LEARNING at the knee of Scotland’s top entrepreneurs has paid off for JJ O’Hara. The 33-year-old, below, from Larbert in Stirlingshire, served first Richard Emanuel at DX Communications, then Chris Gorman at Reality.

The vital experience he gained there has been recognised by JJ (James Joseph) being named the UK’s Franchisee of the Year by the giant Pizza Hut chain and has won him an all-expenses paid trip to a company conference in Cyprus next month. He now plans to use the win as the launch pad for a string of restaurants across Scotland.

Says O’Hara: "I had always wanted to work for myself, ever since I was a boy. Working with Richard and Chris gave me the belief that I could really make a success of it."

Howard sets sail to attract HBOS savers

AS HBOS prepares to roll out the famous Howard Brown, below, for its latest sing-a-long advertising campaign, it is unlikely to appeal to Sir Peter Burt, erstwhile chief executive of Bank of Scotland.

The new chairman of ITV admitted last week that he doesn’t like too many modern themed adverts, preferring some simple information. Brown will be seen and heard singing ‘We are saving’ to the tune of Rod Stewart’s (or should that be the Sutherland Brothers?) ‘We Are Sailing’.

Staff are shown preparing a branch to set sail, though we’ll have to wait until tonight to find out where they are going.

Praise the Lord for a new job with SE

SPIN doctor Mark Morley’s career has included spells helping lost causes such as the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Tories. So his CV must have impressed the interview panel at Scottish Enterprise, where he is now part of the press office team.

Morley’s most recent posting, however, was the Roman Catholic Church, for whom he was the first national director of communications. Presumably that gave him a direct line to the media rather than Him upstairs.

It was a hectic time, fending off allegations, mainly in the News of the World, of a most unnerving kind regarding the extracurricular activities of the good Lord’s representatives on earth, which were never proven.

As network PR manager for SE, he will be managing news output surrounding the local enterprise companies, where he is unlikely to face anything more scandalous than a misplaced grant application.

Despite the Home Counties accent, it turns out Morley is a Glaswegian who grew up in Aberdeen. He remains so devoted to the Granite City that he is taking his new wife there for a holiday. "It’s somewhere I love to return to," he opined - or was that just more spin?

APAX bids to ad value

APAX Partners took out a full page ad in the FT last week highlighting the companies it had backed in the past 12 months.

The private equity firm listed 27 firms it worked with in 2003, claiming that it had returned 940m of cash to its investors. Among the clients namechecked were Calvin Klein, Focus Wickes and Kabel Deutchland.

But strangely missing from the list was Damovo, the Glasgow-based telecoms group in which Apax paid 263m for an 80% stake back in 2001. Apax remains the majority shareholder in the business, which has been struggling as the global economy has stuttered and recently laid off 50 staff.

Could its absence from the ad be because the investment hasn’t quite worked out?

What a carry on for Stagecoach supremo

STAGECOACH chief executive Brian Souter has admitted to being a little excited about meeting actress Barbara Windsor, who will launch the London end of his low-cost bus service, Megabus.

Perth’s richest son, it turns out, is a bit of a fan of the Carry On films, in which Ms Windsor specialised in saucy giggles and wearing few items of clothing.

Babs, as she is better known, is expected to return to the small screen in the BBC soap EastEnders after taking a break due to illness.

But will there be a walk-on part for Brian?

Doubts over Digby

DIGBY Jones, director general of the CBI, is always good value, but there may be pressure on him next time he’s in Scotland to reveal how many companies have "quit" the country because of high business and water rates.

Last year he warned at a CBI lunch at the Roxburghe hotel in Edinburgh that he knew several companies that were looking to relocate.

Well, the rates have not gone down and we haven’t heard of anyone switching the lights off. Jones will be back at the hotel on May 14 so he can name names then.