Ex-Railtrack boss still affected by Hatfield

GERALD Corbett will always be synonymous with Railtrack. It is almost three years since he was ousted in the aftermath of the Hatfield train crash but he is still living under a cloud.

Until recently, the former chief executive was fearful of being charged with corporate manslaughter over Hatfield. Now he faces the lesser charge of breaches of the Health and Safety Act - something that could take years to resolve, if it ever gets to court.

Despite spending the past two-and-a-half years as chairman of Woolworths, Corbett is careful to keep his head down. Apart from twice-yearly results, he has kept a self-imposed purdah on publicity.

Corbett is famed for being the ruthless 'fat-cat' who walked away from Railtrack with a £1.36m pay-off after the Paddington and Hatfield disasters.

He is terrified of lifting his head above the parapet - all too aware that his three-year stint at Railtrack is far more interesting than his plans for the Woolies pick-and-mix sweet counter.

Yet despite his obvious nerves, he seems remarkably sanguine about life. He has no hint of bitterness about having to take the rap for the broken rail at Hatfield, even though many would say the blame rests with the politicians who presided over years of underinvestment.

'All that stuff goes with the patch. If you accept a public job you have to accept public scrutiny. It does affect you, but you just have to get up in the morning and get on with it,' he says.

Corbett is 'completely confident' that he behaved properly as chief executive of Railtrack. He says that £900,000 of his pay-off was a pension entitlement.

On rail safety he says: 'I am not guilty of the charges against me. I know that, but my lawyers have warned me this could take some time.' He clearly is bemused at the prospect of being taken to court.

'I believe that the top guy is responsible, but there is a big difference between taking responsibility and being guilty. I took responsibility after Hatfield because we were in charge of the infrastructure and something went wrong. But to say a chief executive is actually guilty for each rail break, each embankment slip, each signal passed at danger is another thing altogether.'

Many in the City agree. Few executives would want a job where they are held personally responsible for mistakes made by employees.

Corbett admits that Railtrack was always a poisoned chalice because of the immense political and public interest. 'It was a bit like having a target on your head but I took the job because it was a great challenge,' he says.

Having watched the Government allow Railtrack to slide into administration just over a year after he was ousted, Corbett can take some pride in the performance of the business when he was there. When he joined in 1997, the share price was 650p and when he left in November 2000 it was £11. After the Government intervened, shareholders ended up with just 250p.

'History will judge us. People will see it as a difficult period for the railways but one in which punctuality improved and the safety record did steadily get better in spite of two ghastly crashes,' he says. 'It is almost three years since I left. In that period we ran Railtrack for £2.5bn per annum and 91% of trains ran on time.' Now it is costing £6bn a year.

Corbett may try his hand at writing the Railtrack history, but not yet. 'You don't write a book until you know what the ending is - I am only 52,' he says.

He would have struggled under the emotional strain, were it not for the support of his artist wife Virginia and their friends near St Albans. Virginia is 'definitely' the dominant one in their relationship, laughs Corbett, who lays the table for dinner and washes up.

They met on a kibbutz in Israel on university 'gap' years and have been married for 28 years. They have four children and four dogs. Eldest daughter Sarah, 24, has just graduated from The Slade art college. Her work hangs alongside that of Corbett's wife in his office at Woolworths. John, 22, has just finished a politics degree at Newcastle. Olivia, 20, is reading history at Durham and Josephine, 18, is on her gap year.

Corbett is a high achiever. He studied at the elite Tonbridge boarding school before going to Cambridge. He got a distinction for his Master's degree in business studies at the London Business School and won a scholarship to Harvard.

His first major job was as finance director of Dixons in 1985, moving on to building materials firm Redland in 1987. Next was to hold the purse strings at the Grand Metropolitan drinks giant, which had a market value of more than £12bn. Railtrack was his first, and last, chief executive role.

Woolworths, valued at £600m, is small beer in comparison. He reminds me that Woolies was number two in the FTSE 100 in 1959. Though it is never likely to reclaim this position, it sells more toys than any other retailer.

Corbett wants to create 'a bigger and better Woolies'. At its peak, the retailer used to make more than £100m in profits. This year earnings are likely to surge from £38m to £70m. The shares jumped 5 1/2p to 43 1/2p on Wednesday, as first-half figures showed sales on track.

The shares floated at 25p in 2001, when it was split off from parent Kingfisher.

Corbett says this shows he was right to insist on a demerger, despite stiff opposition from the then Kingfisher boss Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy. He says 'after a month of being there' it became obvious that Mulcahy was working behind the scenes to undermine his position - 'but he was not very successful'.

Woolies is tipped as a takeover target, though Corbett says there have been 'no bid approaches' since talks were held with Philip Green earlier this year. He takes a long pause when asked whether Woolworths would fit well with possible predator Asda. 'I don't know, I haven't given it any thought,' he says.

Corbett is looking at a couple of possible takeover deals himself with private equity firms.

He won't say if he likes the look of retailers House of Fraser, Debenhams and New Look - which are all in play. 'I understand why for some companies with big cash flows, low growth and the need for new management, it can be quite valuable for them to be taken private,' he says.

Corbett would like another 'challenging chairmanship' to occupy him when he is not at Woolies. 'They don't grow on trees,' he says.