Governance fighter becomes battle weary

Derek Higgs, a senior investment banker at UBS Warburg, had little idea when he was approached by the Department of Trade and Industry to lead a review of British boardroom practices last year that his published report would make him one of the City's most controversial figures.

The review, published last month, has elicited some strong statements of support but it has also prompted some of Britain's most experienced industrialists to resort to terms such as "barmy" and "nonsense" to describe its suggestions of ways to boost the role of the non-executive director in a company's boardroom.

Mr Higgs, who was asked to find ways to prevent an Enron-style scandal erupting in the UK, unveiled his recommendations with a flourish. But he has clearly become rather battle weary. "I am very keen that people should understand what the review document does and doesn't say. I am not keen to turn the whole debate into Speaker's Corner with a public knockabout," he said.

Yet the high-profile authors of previous corporate governance reviews could have told Mr Higgs, who said he consulted widely with business people, that a backlash was on its way.

Sir Adrian Cadbury, who published the first significant shake-up of British boardrooms in 1992, and Sir Ronnie Hampel, who added his own recommendations in 1998, found that setting out corporate governance standards is not popular with some company bosses who like to have a free rein.

Despite the furore those earlier trail-blazers created, most of their critics got over their differences. As Mr Higgs points out, only five FTSE 100 companies now defy the earlier code by having a joint chairman and chief executive.

Mr Higgs would no doubt like his own critics to do the same and to adopt his suggestions, but it may take some time.