“Have you ever met Alison Carnwath?”
“Have you ever met Alison Carnwath?”
Doing my socialite rounds of the property industry over the last fortnight, nearly every woman I have hob-nobbed with has popped this question. Why? Well, for those of you who have been hiding under a rock, Ms Carnwath is the fearsome new chairman of Land Securities. Over the bank holiday weekend, the Sunday Times famously reported she has given Land Secs’ chief executive Frances Salway six months to turn the company around – or face the sack. Oooh! The nasty lady!
Here’s the non-sensational version: in the wake of Land Secs reporting a £4.8bn loss at its full year results, the chairman orders the chief executive to carry out a strategic review and deliver a new business plan. So far, so dull. But the fact that the chairman is a woman gives this story legs.
That she is a successful woman with a number of influential non-exec roles in the City makes the story even better. We are told that Ms Carnwath is a “former investment banker” (surely equivalent to a first degree in ball-breaking) with newspaper reports describing her as “tough”, “powerful”, “formidable”, “unsentimentally tough” and having a reputation that is universally described as – you guessed it – “tough”.
The picture caption accompanying one web story simply reads; “Alison Carnwath: Tough”.
You almost expect her corporate portrait to growl like a Rottweiler when you run your cursor over it. There are many Google images that show her smiling, but predictably the papers all used the ones of her looking steely-eyed and serious. It’s amazing they didn’t Photoshop in an axe.
She is variously described as “chairman”, “chairwoman” or simply “chair” when Land Secs’ own website makes it perfectly clear that “chairman” is the correct and only form of address. And editors are compelled to tell us her age (56) when they don’t bother to disclose Mr Salway’s (he is 50).
The gender bias continues with headlines like “New chairwoman takes hardline approach”. We are told she has “laid down the gauntlet”, and has “delivered an ultimatum to Land Secs’ chief” as if he was an errant husband. The Express even reports (in quote marks) that she has told Mr Salway to “shape up, or ship out”. This conjures up images of some school marm chucking a board rubber across the board room and shrieking “you’ve been a very naughty boy!”
Predictably, male newspaper columnists have leapt to Mr Salway’s defence. He is described as “a decent victim” by one, and hilariously as a “country vicar” by another. Which casts him very much as the little lamb that the inhuman Ms Carnwath is preparing to slaughter.
The fact that Land Secs has since issued a statement denying that Ms Carnwath has threatened anyone with the sack, or even imposed a six month deadline for this summary execution is largely lost on the press (although it was carried by a local paper in Liverpool).
The real story is whether Ms Carnwath can use her considerable talents to return Land Secs to glory. And that’s what admiring women (and men) within the property industry are desperately hoping she can pull off.
3 Responses to ““Have you ever met Alison Carnwath?””
By Tim Danaher on Jun 12, 2009 | Reply
Tori
As author of the aforementioned “country vicar” description of Francis, I stand by it. That’s what he’s like. I think you’re reading too much into the comments on Carnwath, there’s no doubt she is cracking the whip.
Incidentally, a bit ironic that you’re trying to discredit a story by the excellent PW columnist and former news editor Jenny Davey! Anyone would think you might be a rival journalist in disguise!
By The Big B on Jun 17, 2009 | Reply
“The real story is whether Ms Carnwath can use her considerable talents to return Land Secs to glory.” Well, I think we can all agree with that. Surely the key to achieving that goal is reform or else her skills would not be required? In which case, speculation over any ultimatums given to Francis Salway, which are indicative of major reform and a display of intent, is surely an interesting story!
Chairman / Chairwoman / Chair – is this really biased? Chair is surely as equally as applicable to men as to women! I’m afraid that your quotations often even less support to your case… Your argument is essentially that because she is portrayed as a hard-liner, this is evidence of gender bias. How would you like her portrayed? Read some of the comments on the new DTZ boss, Paul Idzik, I think you’ll find a similar portrayal of someone brought in to bring about change. His photo is considerably more stern than that of Alison Carnwath’s.
Similarly, if Tim Danaher wants to describe Francis Salway as a “country vicar”, why not? The crude juxtaposition that you’ve tried to create simply isn’t there in the reports to my mind.
By Andrew Stead on Sep 24, 2009 | Reply
To answer the question, I have, as it happens, met Alison Carnwath and trained with her many years ago in the then city firm PMM&Co.
Although I have not met her recently, I admired her drive then as now; there is more to her than that however, and I think the article nicely exposes the rather stereotyped and lazy way succesful women are often portrayed in the media.