Bryan Nicholson

Bryan Nicholson is a Member Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), a Senior Independent Director Education Development International plc (EDI part of the privatisation of education), a Senior Advisor Penfida LLP. In the past he has been Chairman of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Chairman Cookson Group plc, Chairman BUPA, Chairman Council of The Open University, Chairman and CEO The Post Office, Chairman Manpower Services Commission and non-executive director at GKN. A politics, philosophy and economics graduate of Oxford, his career included time at Unilever, Lucas Varity plc, the Remington division of Sperry Rand and Rank Xerox in the UK.

Now with Proudfoot Consulting which advises on Call Centres, Asset management "Though people are an organisation’s greatest assets, millions of dollars are also locked up in other items in the asset base"; clients include BP. With the Financial Reporting Council, Nicholson has the Sisyphus-like task of being the 'regulator' (in a de-regulated field) responsible for "promoting confidence in financial reporting and corporate governance in the UK." Confidence seems to come and go (as do the 'watchdogs') as the mountain of successive 'scandals' — which disconnects the cycle into isolated incidents — rolls back down: Sisyphus promoted commerce too. In 2003, Nicholson was appointed to lead a 'super watchdog', subsuming the defunct Accountancy Foundation, with powers to regulate the accounting industry, judge auditor objectivity, and punish inappropriate reporting and use of standards. Accountancy Age told us:

"In other words, Sir Bryan is now in charge of making sure the public and shareholders feel protected from the kind of unscrupulous accounting that went on over at Enron and the sinister shredding that took place at Andersen."

The appointment was made by Patricia Hewitt (formerly of Arthur Andersen). This setting up of passive watchdogs/locking the stable door is the answer to everything. The Telegraph of 2005 stated that:

"Sir Bryan Nicholson, chairman of the Financial Reporting Council, yesterday said that an accounting watchdog for private companies should be set up in the wake of the scandal at MG Rover, in which four men were able to buy the business for £10 and pay themselves tens of millions of pounds."

Nicholson added:

"Part of the duty of the Financial Reporting Council is to maintain confidence in corporate reporting. Cases like this would have the potential to undermine it."

The Telegraph later reported that the despite three warnings that it was futile the DTI continued to pump money into the company. In interviews Nicholson promised to get tough back when he began:

"'I think it's a perfectly fair comment that if we cannot demonstrate that self regulation works, with certain statutory powers only to back it, then the next stage would be total statutory regulation."