Business leaders vote M&S chief top

SIR Richard Greenbury, chairman and chief executive of Marks & Spencer, has been selected as 'the businessman's businessman', the most respected head of a leading British company, by his peers. He is the winner of the poll - the first of its kind - in which the Independent on Sunday asked the chairmen and chief executives of the FT-SE 100 to nominate a fellow chairman or chief executive who has 'made an outstanding contribution in business-building'.

Sir Richard won nine nominations from the 88 top executives who replied to our poll. The runner-up, with seven, was Sir Christopher Hogg, chairman of Reuters. Other well- known names in the top half dozen included Sir Allen Sheppard of Grand Metropolitan and Lord Weinstock of GEC.

Sir Alick Rankin of Scottish & Newcastle praised Sir Richard for managing 'to maintain profit growth through an extreme recession when other retailers have been less successful'.

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