Richard Giordano, American born and bred, was renowned for years as the best paid business executive in Britain, and respected as one of the shrewdest. He helped transform British Oxygen (BOC) into a world leader and recast the old Gas Board conglomerate into a group of successful modern businesses.
But Giordano, who has died aged 88, will be remembered also for a miscalculation – precipitating huge “catch-up” executive pay rises at British Gas. They led to one of the biggest AGM protests over “fat-cat” pay, with union demonstrations and the pillorying of his unfortunate chief executive, Cedric Brown, as “Cedric the pig”.
