50. Richard Howson joined the Carillion board in December 2009 and was Chief Executive from 1 January 2012 until his sacking as the company issued its profit warning on 10 July 2017. He stayed on in a lesser role before leaving in September 2017, though he continued to receive his full, contractual salary until the company entered liquidation.192 Mr Howson had been at the company since its formation in 1999, and the 2016 annual report highlighted his "detailed knowledge of key business units".193 In evidence to us, however, he sought to distance himself from problems in the company that were "from the long term and from a long time ago".194 He joined the board after the acquisitions of Mowlem and Alfred McAlpine (but before Eaga) and stressed that he had moved from a role responsible for Middle East construction when Carillion signed its contract with Msheireb.195
51. Mr Howson demonstrated little grasp of the unsustainability of Carillion's business model or the basic failings of governance that lay at the root of its problems. He opened his evidence by stating that "but for a few very challenging contracts, predominantly in the Oman and one in Qatar, I believe Carillion would have survived".196 He even seemed surprised to have been removed as Chief Executive following the profit warning, arguing "the business was in a sustainable position" based on support it was receiving from banks.197 In his world, Carillion was a healthy business that fell victim to a series of unforeseeable events over which it had no control.
52. In fact, Mr Howson had a responsibility to ensure he was well informed about performance and risk, and to act on areas of weakness. Rather than make the fundamental changes needed, however, he spent much of his time chasing down the consequences of the company's mistakes. As Chief Executive, he told us "probably 60% of my time was either on cash calls or, a lot of time, out and about around contracts collecting".198 He said he "felt like a bailiff" as he visited Qatar ten times a year for six years, "just to try to collect cash" from a single contract.199 He was retained after his sacking with responsibilities for collecting cash on key contracts and boosting morale in the UK construction business.200 We do not doubt that Mr Howson could be an effective cheerleader: he clearly had great affection for what he told us was "a great business".201 However, as the leader of the company, he was either unaware of the significant, long-term problems it was facing, or chose not to act on them.
53. Richard Howson, Carillion's Chief Executive from 2012 until July 2017, was the figurehead for a business model that was doomed to fail. As the leader of the company, he may have been confident of his abilities and of the success of the company, but under him it careered progressively out of control. His misguided self-assurance obscured an apparent lack of interest in, or understanding of, essential detail, or any recognition that Carillion was a business crying out for challenge and reform. Right to the end, he remained confident that he could have saved the company had the board not finally decided to remove him. Instead, Mr Howson should accept that, as the longstanding leader who took Carillion to the brink, he was part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
____________________________________________________________________
192 Carillion plc, Remuneration Committee Minutes, 7 September 2017
193 Carillion plc, Annual Report and Accounts 2016, pp 50-51; Carillion plc, Annual Report and Accounts 2016, p 50
194 Q609 [Richard Howson]
195 Q425 [Richard Howson]
196 Q413 [Richard Howson]
197 Q475 [Richard Howson]
198 Q534 [Richard Howson]
199 Q426 [Richard Howson]
200 Letter from Richard Howson to the Chairs, 21 February 2018
201 Q413 [Richard Howson]