Bunhill: Overboard

OTHER people collect stamps and paintings, Professor Sir Roland Smith acquires directorships - 10 at the last count. But one that slipped away recently was Gerald Ronson's Heron Corporation. The professor was proposed as one of two new non-executives on the board, currently being strengthened by the banks as part of Heron's urgent restructuring.

Unfortunately, the prospect of him and Ronson - no wall- flower either - sitting in meetings together was regarded as potentially too explosive, and his name was withdrawn.