This follows her resignation from the company in 2006, though she said at the time, the decision to part company was not hers.

I had the good fortune of spending a whole morning in the company of Reed just before her departure and she was concise, though very frank about what she'd found at Standard Life. She was happy to admit that some things, especially in the finance department, needed sorting out.

She was professional, incisive and perfectly amiable during the entire time we both worked on judging the Accountancy Age awards.

It's a piy others could not have seen the qualities that were so evident that day. They might have saved themselves a coniderable sum of money.