堅い times for the Equitable boss

By CHRIS BLACKHURST FOR MAILONLINE
Updated: 00:00 BST, 10 March 2004

?

HERE'S a starter for 10. Who has the worst 職業 in Britain? Leaving aside all those people who do dirty but necessary work such as emptying 貯蔵所s, digging coal and 虐殺（する）ing animals, and concentrating on the 最高の，を越す level, who would you choose? The 総理大臣? Hmmm. The leader of the Tories? Warmer. 大司教 of Canterbury? Another one where the numbers are 負かす／撃墜する and 力／強力にする and 影響（力） are not w hat they were.

In 商売／仕事, there's no 不足 of 候補者s. Running Sainsbury's in the 直面する of a はびこる Tesco? That's one which evokes more sympathy than congratulations. Taking over at 爆撃する and wondering just how 深い the problems go? Wait and see on that one. No, the stand out answer is chairman of Equitable Life.

Even 許すing for the fact most people in the country, because of all the publicity, imagine Equitable shut up shop years ago, and with it went the （議長，司会の）地位，能力, just think what it must be like to be Vanni Treves. You're the chairman of Equitable Life and you've got a million policyholders who are more than a little cheesed off with your company's 失敗 to 供給する them with comfortable 退職s.

Those 顧客s have friends and 親族s so one million easily feels like two or three million. Everywhere you go, every 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, cocktail party, dinner, you get badgered by an Equitable loser or someone who knows one.

I have a sense of what it's like to be Treves, since in this 職業 I'm often asked: 'When will I get my Equitable money 支援する?' As soon as they discover you're the City Editor, they want answers. When someone told me in the pub recently that he'd been in Equitable and then 基準 Life, and sought my advice as to where he should go next, I was speechless and just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to give him a consoling 抱擁する. It's the haunted, pleading look that's most upsetting: they've lost their shirts and they don't know why.

事例／患者 for 補償（金）

MIND, before I get carried away and award Treves a trolley-負担 of honours for his Mother Teresa 行為／法令／行動する for the saving middle-classes, there is the knowledge that he's paid £125,000 for his part-time position.

Still, he's in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of a 会社／堅い that's の近くにd to new 商売／仕事 and is running 負かす／撃墜する but somehow he has to keep the staff on an even keel; he has to turn in a creditable 業績／成果 from Equitable's 投資s for the policyholders who remain, and he has to continue 圧力（をかける）ing t o 得る 補償（金） for those who took a 大打撃を与えるing, when the former 管理／経営 screwed up spectacularly and failed to 会合，会う 保証（人）s on annuities.

Even the latter is fraught with difficulty. Treves, a lawyer (coincidentally, many of his fellow lawyers are の中で Equitable's policyholders - it was the assurer of choice for many solicitors and barristers, and one of its most active 支店s was on Aldwych, の近くに to the 法律 法廷，裁判所s and 寺) isn't fazed by 告訴するing people but every time he 問題／発行するs a 令状 on に代わって of Equitable he's got to 重さを計る up the chances of success against the money 利用できる to policyholders 存在 eaten away by yet more 合法的な costs.

He also has to consider whether one 部類 of policyholder should get first call over another and, given that Equitable 問題／発行するd 96 different types of 政策 and all their 支えるもの／所有者s have （人命などを）奪う，主張するs and 権利s, the 見込み of him upsetting someone is very high.

So, as he pores over the mammoth Penrose 報告（する）／憶測 into why the 相互の society he 長，率いるs is a 災害, and as he 検討する，考慮するs over what he's going to do about it and who he might 告訴する next - he's already 追求するing the former directors and auditors - he could be forgiven for wishing he was どこかよそで. He's been linked to other 職業s, 顕著に the 議長，司会を務めるs of ITV and BAE Systems but, for the time 存在, he's staying put.

He's got work to do and attractive as other 申し込む／申し出s are, you sense he's now working at Equitable out of 義務. Those despairing policyholders have got to him. There's 怒り／怒る 同様に. Treves can be smooth but he can also be abrasive. He may be going after the ex-directors but he has no qualms about it. Some of them are 豊富な and they can afford it - unlike many policyholders they let 負かす／撃墜する - is his 見解（をとる）. He's also cross that he's been 押し進めるd into a 'no 勝利，勝つ' 状況／情勢 by some of the more vociferous policyholders. He'll only get a result if he chases 補償（金）, yet there are those who 告発する／非難する him of frittering away cash by chasing 補償（金）.

Treves is out to 証明する them wrong , to 正当化する his 活動／戦闘s, leave Equitable with his 評判 損なわれていない and, かもしれない, to have sold it as a going 関心. For that to happen he needs the old directors and auditors to 洞穴 in, and 平等に any moves arising from Penrose to be done and dusted. Only then, might he relax and 熟考する／考慮する for the history degree he's always 約束d himself. He may also retire to his native Tuscany.

熟考する／考慮するing and going home are 主題s dear to his heart. His father, who held a 博士号 in English Literature, was killed fighting for the 同志／支持者s against the 国粋主義者／ファシスト党員s in 1944. At the end of the war, his Italian-ユダヤ人の mother met an English 実業家 and moved to London to スイスの Cottage to be with him. They married and the young Treves went to school here - and had to withstand taunts about his foreign 指名する, teasing that haunts him still and 押し進めるd him to work hard and to get on. He went to St Paul's School on a scholarship, then to the Universities of Oxford and Illinois.

An ありそうもない choice

HE didn't want to be a solicitor, (he says he wasn't literate enough to be a 新聞記者／雑誌記者, 勇敢に立ち向かう enough to be a 政治家，政治屋 or clever enough to be an academic) but with his 平易な charm and sharp wit, he was a natural, joining the City 会社／堅い of Macfarlanes and ending up its 上級の partner.

He also had some lucky breaks: a fashion designer called Mary Quant introduced him to two advertising whizzkids on the make, Charles and Maurice Saatchi. He became their lawyer and joined their board; and he became friendly with an eccentric American called Sir John Paul Getty and was his lawyer too.

Under Treves, Macfarlanes grew into one of the most successful City practices, not big enough to break into the 最高の，を越す tier of Clifford Chance and 虐殺（する） and May, but 泡ing under nicely. Treves enjoyed one of the highest profiles の中で City lawyers, becoming immersed in 法人組織の／企業の 戦う／戦いs and getting known as an irascible bruiser. His biggest 落ちるing out was with the Saatchis in 1990, when he やめる their board, a ccusing the brothers of living high on the hog at the company's expense.

It was a みごたえのある 破産した／（警察が）手入れする-up but one from which he didn't shirk, then or now. He still thinks they went too far, that he was 権利 to go - even though the 列／漕ぐ／騒動 原因（となる）d the Saatchi & Saatchi 機関 to implode - and still won't have anything to do with them.

In the world in which Treves moves - he's also 議長，司会を務めるd Channel 4 and the London 商売／仕事 School, sat on 非常に／多数の charity 基金-raising 委員会s and was a 正規の／正選手 attender at the best dinners, parties and 首相s - such a 論争 could 抑制（する） his style. Not a bit of it. He's direct and unabashed, unafraid to taken on all-comers. He can come across as arrogant too, very 確信して, steely and superior. Compared with the Saatchis, though, hapless 政府 大臣s and policyholders are chicken 料金d. He didn't 苦しむ the brothers 喜んで and he won't 苦しむ this lot either.

Time is getting on. He's 63 now and the last three years, trying to make sense of Equitable, have 老年の him. The lines on his 直面する are more 非常に／多数の and deeper than they once were. But he's fit, walking to 会合s, walking to and from his Islington home. He's also 動機づけるd by a 願望（する） for 復讐.

It's often forgotten by policyholders, who 告発する／非難する him of not looking after their 利益／興味s, that Treves is one of them. He wasn't sure what sort of 政策s he owned but 設立する out, when he became chairman, they were of the 保証（人）d annuities 肉親，親類d. He's 豊富な and can take the 攻撃する，衝突する.

But such an unpalatable 発覚 toughens the mind and sharpens the sword.