I hope an awful lot of you will want to contribute alongside my own thank you. Please record your own Grenville Turner (pictured) stories and comments below mine. Let’s make it a true interactive experience if we can.
I say hello on September 1 to Alison Platt as the new CEO of Countrywide. From what I’ve seen of her so far I have absolutely no doubt that she will be an outstanding success and lead my august organisation to even greater heights and new peaks.
But my blog this month is to wave goodbye to my previous CEO in possibly his last executive role (though with him you never know) as he moves into a portfolio non-exec career including non-exec chairman of Countrywide. It is a trite observation to say that in September 2003, when I first met Grenville Turner, that I didn’t know that he would change my life, its possibilities and be by far and away the biggest influence on my own career. That is of course what happened.
Now you don’t get the chance to record in print too often but I wanted to say just this… Grenville has had a major impact on my life – my leader, mentor and most especially as my friend. I have learned more from him in business than he has forgotten. So I thought if you have a blog then what better to say – Grenville, I thank you.
Picking just a few stories from over 11 years of working together is a tough one. In no particular order I recall the Halifax sponsorship of the Chelsea Flower Show and his help when the entire Exec teams of BM and TMB left to form Edeus and Deutsche Bank Mortgages.
The sale of a small HBOS business on New Year’s Eve, when I was out in the cold in Budapest and Grenville was walking the streets of Edinburgh while we had a conference call with Paribas Executives in Brazil with neither of us having told our partners that we would be gone two hours..
I remember explaining the UK IFA market to a US Private Equity firm and founding Bellpenny with him and Kevin Ronaldson. Finally, his unstinting and frankly bewildering energy during the IPO of Countrywide where no one could have done more to successfully float a business.
I have been extremely lucky to know that I have had a unique insight into a person that I totally respect. I am also a little sad as equally I know that I will never work with anyone quite like him again.
Nigel Stockton is financial services director at Countrywide
