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Article: Blandishments; Face value; Sir Christopher Bland and BT.(new chief of British Telecommunications)(Business)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 26, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LARGE, jovial and energetic, Sir Christopher Bland clearly cannot abide a mess. Before he sits down in his calm room at Broadcasting House, right in the prow of the BBC 's ocean-liner of a building in London's Portland Place, he spots a tulip wilting in a vase. "Away for a day and things fall apart," he says crossly, whisking it out and into the bin.
Dead flowers are one consequence of dividing his time between chairing the board of governors of the BBC, Britain's state-owned broadcaster, and of BT, the former state-owned telecommunications business whose chairman he became at the start of May. He has chaired the BBC since 1996, and had two more years to go when ...