Key Players in the Northern Rock Crisis

As the old saying goes "You can't tell the players without a score card." So here are some brief biographical sketches on the main personalities involved in the bail-out of Northern Rock.

The Executives

ADAM APPLEGARTH - Young, shaven-headed, aggressive, the Northern Rock chief executive joined from university and moved, in only 18 years, from cashier to the youngest FTSE-100 chief at the age of 39 (salary £1.3m last year). Considered, until this week, to be the golden boy of UK retail banking; rumoured to have been tipped to be the new chief executive of the Abbey Santander group.

DAVID BAKER - meant to be a steady hand on the tiller. Rose from Management Trainee working in the post room (1974) to deputy chief executive (2005). Greatest quotes - When asked, "How has the company changed since you joined?" , answered, "We’ve changed from porridge, being thick and slow to stir, to rice crispies, full of snap, crackle and pop." When asked in late July about the prospects for Northern Rock, "We are very confident about the long term future of Northern Rock. We are punching well above our weight."

The Mandarins

SIR CALLUM MCCARTHY - Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, his job is to ensure that financial markets are orderly and that consumers receive fair treatment. A former civil servant (DTI) and international banker (Kleinworth Benson, BZW/ Barclays Capital), he was chairman of Ofgem, the energy regulator, before joining the FSA in 2003

ALISTAIR DARLING - As a minister under Tony Blair, he was voted Britain’s most boring politician. Since then, life has not been so dull. As chancellor since June, he has faced turmoil in financial and banking markets. Supporters claim that his calm is an asset; critics say he is “just a mouthpiece for Gordon Brown”.

MERVYN KING - The Bank of England governor is the man to whom British bankers turn when all else fails. A former Cambridge
and LSE don, he joined the Bank in 1991. After becoming governor in 2003 he took a tough line on inflation - and, until Thursday, was not keen to bail out banks for reckless lending.

Sources: Websites of The Bank of England, the FSA, 10 Downing Street, Northern Rock and 'The Times'.

Cassandra