`The staff can really see what I'm like'

Exit for glamour-boy chief with the big ego who challenged the society dinosaurs

STEVE LODGE

Peter Robinson, ousted yesterday as group chief executive of the Woolwich building society, enjoys his leisure hours as well as being undoubtedly ambitious. Cricket, golf and - yes - gardening have all been cited by the Woolwich in an attempt to help brighten up its image and business, which some in the City have described as "boring".

As a sports fanatic, apparently he was a regular user of the society's gym. An interview earlier this year produced a quote which today will be seen with more than a touch of irony by the society's staff: "The staff can really see what I am like when I'm in the shower ... I can't hide anything in there can I?", he said.

Mr Robinson, 54, is a keen cricketer, and is said to have shared a crease with cricketing legends such as Sir Colin Cowdrey and Alec Stewart. He has been a playing member of the MCC and captain of both Bexleyheath and Bromley cricket teams in south-east London. Having only taken over the captainship of the society three months ago, jokes about a short innings are inevitable.

Ambitious - it was Mr Robinson who pushed through the conversion plans for the society, announcing them just 11 days after becoming chief executive - he has also been seen as arrogant and something of a "glamour boy". Not really a building society man at all, some of the more dinosaur-like members of the movement will now be (discreetly) saying, despite his 32 years with the Woolwich. He started as a management trainee and became chief executive at the turn of this year, replacing a predecessor who is now to replace him, and who is said to be opposed to the Woolwich's switch to bank status.

It was Mr Robinson who coined the now widely used term "carpetbagger" to describe savers who opened accounts hoping to benefit from the society's long-anticipated demutualisation. The disqualification of some 40,000 savers who opened accounts this year from the proposed handout of free shares so enraged some savers that they considered legal action. Arguably it was not what he said about having no regrets about "not enfranchising carpetbaggers" - a move which protected more loyal savers and borrowers - but the disdainful way in which he described these windfall hunters that really showed his mettle.

He was happy to admit to accusations of having a big ego, and it would not have surprised some observers if yesterday's ousting had proved to result from a fall out with other board members. There had been speculation that Mr Robinson had found it difficult working with the current chairman, Sir Brian Jenkins, a former Lord Mayor of London, but this was strongly denied.

The now notorious house and garden is in the village of Brasted in Kent, near to the society's headquarters in Bexleyheath, where Mr Robinson lives with his second wife and two teenage daughters.

He was also born in Bexleyheath and went to school locally, at the grammar school in Erith.

He was estimated to be earning pounds 300,000 a year and probably stood to benefit from a significant number of share options when the society became a bank.

But, interestingly, he noted he was probably the least important of his siblings. Two brothers are multi-millionaires and a sister in Canada is a successful dress designer, he said earlier this year, adding that his mother thinks he has: "done the best because I have done it all the hard way".

He may have less room for such supposedly disarming modesty now. It was not clear last night with what - if any - payoff he would leave the society. But having had an account opened for him with the Woolwich 40 years ago, he still looks set to enjoy his free shares, whether in his garden or elsewhere.