Electricity company chief quits: Nigel Rudd named to succeed Harris as chairman of East Midlands

JOHN HARRIS, chairman and chief executive of East Midlands Electricity, is to retire unexpectedly on 30 April. The role of chairman will be filled in a non-executive capacity by Nigel Rudd, chairman of Williams Holdings, the industrial conglomerate. He has been a non- executive director of East Midlands for more than four years.

Mr Rudd has been privately critical of diversification at East Midlands, which has bought into non- core businesses including security and contracting.

At one stage Mr Harris was also thought to be keen to invest in coal mining with the Union of Democratic Mineworkers but the plans, which are believed to have caused friction among members of the board, were subsequently dropped. Industry sources say that Mr Harris's tendency to maintain a high profile in the press was not always welcomed by his colleagues.

East Midlands said that Mr Harris, whose salary last year was around pounds 226,000, would not receive a pay-off.

A spokesman said: 'It is not an issue because he applied for early retirement himself.' Earlier this year it emerged that Mr Harris made a profit of pounds 437,000 from exercising share options and selling the majority of his shares. He and his family retain more than 30,000 shares.

Mr Harris, who is 55 and has been chairman for 12 years, was already due to hand over the role of chief executive in April to Norman Askew, the present managing director. Analysts said they had assumed that Mr Harris would retain the top role at the company.

However, Bill Dale, of SG Warburg, said investors would welcome the appointment of a heavyweight such as Mr Rudd.

Mr Harris's departure follows an announcement in December that the finance director, Mike Carus, was to retire early. Mr Carus has been replaced by Bob Davies, formerly with Ferranti.

Mr Rudd said: 'As non-executive chairman I shall look forward to working with the strong executive team that has been assembled, which will continue to focus on the core electricity business.'

Mr Harris said he had been discussing his early departure with the non-executive directors since last year but had been delayed by the search for a new finance director. He was not interested in remaining in the electricity industry, where he has worked for 38 years.

'I am looking forward to a new world and taking on new business interests,' he said. 'If I had thought that retirement meant doing nothing I may well have wanted to stay on.'