Brian Pitman

Sir Brian Pitman, died in 2010 aged 78. "In the 18 years up to 2001, as chief executive and then chairman of Lloyds Bank." During his early years "His ability was soon spotted, and he quickly moved to the head office in London. As head of Lloyds' City office in the early 1970s, he was responsible first for backing adventurers such as Jim Slater and Sir James Goldsmith, then for helping work out how to save the banking sector when it was on the point of collapse after the property crash of 1973. ... Cricket remained an abiding passion, and he was an excellent golfer. But business was his life. When he stepped down as chief executive in 1997, he took several non-executive directorships, including the chairmanship of the clothing chain Next (1998-2002) and seats on the boards of companies as varied as Carlton Communications (1998-2004) and then ITV (2003-08), the engineering conglomerate Tomkins (2000-07), Carphone Warehouse from 2001 onwards, and Singapore Airlines from 2003. When he finally resigned as Lloyds TSB chairman in 2001, Pitman became an adviser to the US investment bank Morgan Stanley and was still involved in banking there and elsewhere up to his death. He was associated with the Virgin Money consortium with which Sir Richard Branson hoped to take over Northern Rock in 2007, and last January became Virgin Money's chairman. Last November the Financial Services Authority made him one of five new advisers on corporate governance."