Focus: Gold summer on corporate merry-go-round

Don’t tell my ex-wife, but I’m having my best year ever,” a big-hitter at one of the UK’s largest headhunting names says under his breath. “There’s more movement than we’ve seen in a while.”

He’s not the only one who’s busy racking up the fees, despite the wider mood music around Brexit. That’s because some of the biggest jobs in corporate Britain are up for grabs.

Wherever you look in the business landscape you see vacancies — or potential ones — coming up which could have ambitious candidates licking their lips.

Take retail: the whispers say that if Marks & Spencer’s efforts to improve don’t go to plan, Steve Rowe will have to walk. Former Sainsbury’s boss Justin King is in the wings on the board and wouldn’t be the first non-exec to get the top job. He’ll probably have to fend off ambitious clothing and home boss Jill McDonald, though, who told an industry event in January that she had wanted to "run it”.

Over at King’s old shop Sainsbury’s, if Mike Coupe falls after the collapse of the Asda deal, two fancied internal contenders include Argos boss John Rogers and chief financial officer Kevin O’Byrne — a former B&Q boss who’s a confident City performer.

Elsewhere, gossips suggest Tesco boss Dave Lewis might be tempted to return to consumer goods — he came from Unilever — as the chief executive role at Vanish-to-Cillit Bang giant Reckitt Benckiser falls vacant. That in turn will leave the boss’s role at the UK’s biggest grocer wide open after Lewis’s widely tipped successor Charles Wilson stepped down because of cancer last year.

Over at John Lewis Partnership, Kate Swann, Patrick Lewis and Paul Geddes are all vying to replace Sir Charlie Mayfield; Lewis is the bookies’ favourite.

In finance Ross McEwan is a tough act to follow at Royal Bank of Scotland after the starting pistol for the top job was formally fired last month, with deputy chief executive Alison Rose in pole position. The board is taking its time though, which suggests she might not be the dead cert everyone thinks.

After eight years at Lloyds Banking Group António Horta-Osório is linked to most big banking jobs these days but another state-backed bank would be a bridge too far.

Scottish Widows chief executive Antonio Lorenzo could be a candidate if Horta-Osório heads off. At the smaller end of the scale, few would bet on Metro Bank’s Craig Donaldson lasting much longer either.