He became the public face of the biggest banking crisis in a century: unashamed, unloved and, ultimately, unemployable.
Or so it seemed. Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive dubbed “the world’s worst banker” for his role in bringing the City to its knees, has quietly returned to corporate life in Edinburgh after more than a year in virtual hiding.
The Times can reveal that Sir Fred, blamed for the near collapse of RBS before it was rescued by a £20 billion taxpayer bailout, started as a senior adviser to RMJM, the world’s fifth largest architecture firm, before Christmas.
Sources close to the company confirmed that staff were told of the appointment yesterday afternoon. In an internal statement, Peter Morrison, chief executive of RMJM Europe, said: “In order to support our international expansion strategy, we have engaged Sir Fred Goodwin as an adviser to the business. I look forward to him becoming an integral part of our established advisory team.”
RMJM would not confirm how much Sir Fred, 51, will earn but it will certainly be less lucrative than his role at RBS. In 2007, a year before his actions almost caused the demise of Britain’s second-biggest bank, he had a salary of £4.2 million. He can, however, still look forward to a performance-related bonus.
Sir Fred’s decision to take over ABN Amro for £50 billion in 2007, despite warnings that RBS was overburned with debt, led to the catastrophic demise of the bank and the loss of about 20,000 jobs.
Nicknamed “Fred the Shred”, the engineer’s son from Paisley left RBS in November 2008 before taking his children out of school, leaving his £3 million house in the suburbs of Edinburgh and fleeing for a gated retreat on the French Riviera to escape a public backlash that resulted in the vandalism of his home in March.
Sir Fred has had numerous offers in the past few months, according to RMJM sources, but turned them all down. They said that he “warmed immediately” to their proposal. The position will involve assisting with international projects, particularly in Asia, where Sir Fred is well known from his banking days and where his reputation did not suffer the same battering.
Fellow Edinburgh architects expressed amazement at the appointment. “This is a guy who was once branded ‘The world’s worst banker’,” said one. “Why on earth would you want to appoint someone like that?” one said.
RMJM said that it thought long and hard before approaching Sir Fred. “Of course we recognised that this would be a controversial appointment,” an RMJM source said. “But we saw an advantage in recruiting someone with global business experience who had demonstrated a proven ability in business acquisitions to help us to develop our international markets. Do international people view Sir Fred in the same way as he is seen by the media? I don’t think so.” Mr Morrison, the chief executive, consulted significant clients and international contacts before approaching Sir Fred. New colleagues who have begun working with him said that he is “a dream to work with”, according to RMJM.
Sir Fred was forced to apologise to the Treasury Select Committee and was told in May to hand back a further £210,000 a year from a pension pot that had already been reduced from £555,000 to £342,500.
RMJM’s projects include the Scottish Parliament building, the Dubai International Convention Centre and the Beijing Olympic Green Convention Centre.
Job descriptions
What Sir Fred did at RBS Chief executive 2000-2008
Salary: £4.2 million in 2007
Pension: £703,000 a year, later reduced to £342,500
Job description: Running one of the largest banks in the world CV highlights Acquisition spree, buying stakes in 26 banks in seven years. Sacked thousands of employees as part of cost-stripping exercise. An ill-fated £50 billion takeover of ABN Amro in 2007, despite warnings that RBS was over-indebted
What he will do at RMJM Senior adviser to architectural firm that designed the Scottish Parliament building
Salary: Unknown, but he will receive performance- related bonus
Job description: Business trips to Asia to expand RMJM abroad
Strategy meetings with members of RMJM’s panel of elite architecture experts
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