National Express finance chief shunted off

Britain's biggest train operator, National Express, abruptly parted company with its finance director yesterday. William Rollason, who joined the group three years ago from the television company Carlton, is expected to receive a pay-off worth about £275,000.

National Express's chief executive Phil White, who has only recently returned to work after a protracted illness, denied that there had been any boardroom bust-up or that he had felt his role was being usurped by Mr Rollason.

"I like ambitious people and I am quite happy with people nipping at my ankles, it keeps me on my toes," Mr White said. "I don't appoint yes men so why should I feel uncomfortable about somebody running the company successfully in my absence?"

Mr White said the National Express board had decided it needed a finance director who was "more concentrated on the day job and mundane tasks like doing the management accounts" rather than a corporate financier like Mr Rollason.

However, allies of Mr Rollason suggested Mr White might have felt his own job under threat. "He has in effect been running the business for the last few months and I don't think Phil White was entirely comfortable with that," one said.

Mr Rollason, 42, is the latest in a long line of senior executives to have quit the National Express board, not all of them voluntarily. His predecessor as finance director, Colin Childs, left after it was made clear the chief executive's post would not become available for a long time, while Richard Brown quit as commercial director and is now running Eurostar.

Mr White said talks with Mr Rollason had begun months ago but matters had come to a head in the last few days. He said he was now fully recovered from his illness and quipped: "The doctor said it was an aversion to finance directors."

Mr White added that Mr Rollason's departure had sprung from a wider review of management succession plans. The chairman, Michael Davies, 67, is expected to retire in 2004 but Mr White said there was no chance of him moving into the post since he believed it should be filled by a genuinely independent non-executive.