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Taste for difficult roles should help new chairman balance demands of investors and regulatorsWhen Adam Crozier arrived to run Royal Mail 18 years ago, during a time of turmoil and industrial unrest, he confessed to a taste for difficult roles. It’s a tendency he once described as “thrawn”, a Scots word meaning difficult or intractable.The role in fact required considerable political skills in managing ministers – the Royal Mail was still government-owned – and had a unionised workforce. Crozier will need those diplomatic skills once more as he takes the chair at BT, the former telecoms monopoly, to balance the demands of regulators and an array of heavyweight investors. BT’s board will be hoping the 57-year-old enjoys a smoother relationship with chief executive Philip Jansen – just three years his junior – than the previous chairman. Continue reading...