Charles Miller Smith
Background
Charles Miller Smith joined the Board of Scottish Power as Deputy Chairman in August 1999 and was appointed as Chairman in April 2000.
Much of his career was with Unilever, where he spent more than 30 years holding a wide range of financial and general management positions in the U.K., the Netherlands and India., culminating in his appointment as Director of Finance, and of the Food Executive.[2]
Mr. Smith was appointed chief executive-designate of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) from 1994 to 1999 and Chairman of ICI from 1999 to 2001.
He was also an International Advisor to Goldman Sachs International from 2001 to 2005.
He was previously a non-executive director of Midland Bank plc. and HSBC Holdings plc as well.
Now, he is a Director of ICICI One Source plc, an Indian company, and is a member of the Defence Management Board of the Ministry of Defence.
He is Chairman of the Economics Committee of the Confederation of British Industry and a Companion of the Institute of Management. He is also a Senior European Advisor to Warburg Pincus International, LLC. [3]
Restructuring the company
Mr. Smith was involved with Simon Lowth and former chief executive Ian Russell in the decision to restructure Scottish Power in September of 2005. This meeting resulted in getting rid of two top executives - David Nish and Charles Berry. Along with these sackings, the human resources director, Mike Pittman, and the communications chief, Dominic Fry were dismissed as well. The explanation given referred to when Scottish Power announced the £5.1 billion sale of its giant US business PacifiCorp to the world-famous entrepreneur Warren Buffet. PacifiCorp was responsible for two-thirds of Scottish Power's valuation, which meant that the company would become much smaller when the deal went through. The idea of the restructuring was to slim down the group - stripping out the four directors in the process - preparing it for life as a smaller, independent, predominantly UK-based utility. However, it was not mentioned that the group's smaller size was what had attracted E.ON's attention or that the downsizing was threatening the independence of one of Scotland's biggest companies. To this day, the company has yet to publicly link the two events - despite the asking of questions in parliament. Later that same day, E.ON confirmed that it was considering its options regarding a possible takeover of Scottish Power. [4]
Notes
- ^ Photograph from Scottish Power Meet the Board, Charles Miller Smith, accessed 20 March 2007.
- ^ Board Member History from Scottish Power Meet the Board, Charles Miller Smith, accessed 20 March 2007.
- ^ Company information from Warburg Pincus People, Charles Miller Smith, accessed 17 April 2007.
- ^ Company restructuring from The Scotsman "Battle to keep ScottishPower in Scotland" Top Stories, accessed 19 April 2007.
