Out of the Frying Pan into the Furnace

Sir Julian Horn-Smith had a long and distinguished career at Vodafone. I would have thought that towards the end the political shenanigans would have been driving him crazy. I would have guessed that he would have been looking forward to a quiet semi-retirement serving as a non-executive director at a small select group of companies.

Imagine my surprise that barely two months into retirement, he turns up along with Douglas Hurd on the board of Altimo. Altimo is the holding company for Alfa Group telecom assets and is currently fighting both Teliasonera and Telenor. Once these battles have been resolved, Altimo has frequently discussed taking a different Western partner and floating in London – I wonder which will be the first door that Altimo knocks on?