Whitehead Mann chairman quits

TOP headhunter Whitehead Mann lost its chairman on Friday after Peter Foy resigned 'for personal reasons, with immediate effect'.

A spokesman for the firm said Foy, 63, had been seeking to reduce his work commitments. Though still a director of PepsiCo and Safeway, Foy stepped down from the board of P&O Princess Cruises last year prior to its merger with Carnival, citing health reasons.

Foy has been a major behind-the-scenes force in the City for many years, spending almost three decades at management consultant McKinsey, where he counted Archie Norman, the Tory MP and erstwhile retailer, among his proteges. He retired as managing director of the consultant in 1996 when he was parachuted in as chairman of Barings in the aftermath of its collapse at the hands of rogue trader Nick Leeson.

His departure is the latest in a stream at the headhunter. Founder Anna Mann is leaving shortly while chief executive Stephen Lawrence has been in the job less than a year. Foy is being replaced by senior nonexecutive Sir Colin Southgate, the former boss of EMI and an ex-chairman of the Royal Opera House.

The firm lost £22m last year. Southgate said trading was at present on budget.