British Gas boss leaves and makes ambition public

Phil Bentley has effectively been told: try your luck elsewhere if you really want to be a chief executive

Running British Gas is not everybody's idea of fun, even on a �635,000 salary, so perhaps Phil Bentley's wish to work elsewhere is understandable. But the manner of his departure is odd. Most executives harbouring an ambition to be a chief executive would call a few headhunters on the quiet and see what happens.

Bentley, though, has resigned, albeit in a comfortable manner ? he will cease being managing director of British Gas at the end of June but can stay on until the end of this year helping, in the standard jargon, to ensure "a smooth transition".

That suggests there has been no storming row. Bentley, 54, has simply been told that current Centrica chief executive, Sam Laidlaw, is going nowhere; or that he wouldn't be a shoo-in even if there was a vacancy. In other words, try your luck elsewhere if you really want to be a chief executive.

Bentley can afford to take his chances, of course, since his accumulated pension and share entitlements at Centrica amount to about �10m. But is announcing your ambition to the world the best way to land a big chief executive's job? We'll know soon enough: if Bentley is still managing that smooth transition at Christmas, he may have over-played his hand.

• Centrica
• Utilities

Nils Pratley

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/feb/27/british-gas-phil-bentley-ambition

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