Alison Carnwarth has just quit her position on Barclays’ board, continuing a series of resignations which has included Marcus Agius, Bob Diamond and Jerry del Missier.
Her statement read: “With regret I have concluded that I am no longer able to devote sufficient time to my role as a director of Barclays given my other commitments.”
She cited no other reasons, and her decision has left people speculating. But her most recent interview, given to economia magazine, gives a few clues. Here’s an extract:
“None of us can be proud of how all this [Bob Diamond’s renumeration package] was portrayed to the great British public.” She’s keen to point out that she is aware of the mood in the country, and what “people have had to put up with, ordinary people like you and me. When I’m not doing my job I’m an ordinary person. “But, remuneration and risks aside, to sit on the board of somewhere like Barclays, you have a window on how the world is working. You see where the capital flows are around the world, you see where the liquidity is, and you see where the stresses are in the financial system.”
Like any ordinary person, she worries. “I sometimes wake up worried – or don’t go to sleep at all because I’m anxious,” she says. “That’s not so good. Last night I lay awake fretting about something. I then have to stand up and somehow all the worry drains out of my feet, or I write things down.”
She said that “a lot of pressures” had come to bear on the remuneration committee.
“It’s not easy, and we don’t always get it right. We clearly didn’t get it right this year. The shareholders were a little upset, although they weren’t upset in the same way as we’ve seen at other companies; our proposals did get through. But, whereas in previous years we would have got perhaps 85% voting in favour of our remuneration report, this year it was just over 70%. So clearly there were some major institutions that were not in agreement with what we did, and we must try to communicate better.”
“I’m very sensitive to the general feeling out there, when people are miserable and unemployed.”
The full interview can be read in Friday’s economia.
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