In the news: Co-operative Group's review chair Lord Myners profiled

The Co-operative Group unveiled the appointment today, and revealed that Myners has been tasked with chairing a review of the mutual following the recent scandal at the Co-operative bank.

The former Marks & Spencer chairman’s plethora of City positions and broad experience across retail, banking and Government will add weight to the review which could see The Co-op’s management structure significantly altered.

The 64-year-old Cornishman, who says he thrives on intensity, is expected to bring credence to a business which has been undermined by the actions of former bank chairman and minister in the Methodist church Paul Flowers, who was arrested over drug allegations in November.

The irony of Myners’ appointment following Flowers’ disgrace is considerable.  Not only did a youthful Myners win a scholarship to study at an independent Methodist college in Truro, he followed this in recent years by studying theology after becoming disgusted by the apparent immorality and greed he discovered in the City.

“Money has become everything [in the financial community]. People have lost their sense of purpose. The absence of clear moral purpose is something that is very troubling,” he said in 2009.

Myners’ illustrious career, in which he has amassed a personal wealth estimated at £30m, was built on relatively humble foundations. He spent his early years in a children’s home in Cornwall and was adopted at the age of three by a self-employed butcher and a hairdresser.

He began his career as a secondary school teacher at a school in Wandsworth, south London after attaining first class honours from the University of London in the early 1970s. After just two years, he took a career sidestep in spending three years as a financial journalist for The Daily Telegraph.

Myners got a taste for the City and quickly joined Rothschild as a portfolio manager, kickstarting a career which spanned a raft of director roles and non-executive positions at companies including Gartmore Investment Management, Lloyd’s Market Board, NatWest, O2 and Orange over three decades.

He has said he entered the City at “the first time it was possible for a non-top public school, non-suavely spoken person to have a career that wasn’t limited”.

But it was his tenure as chairman of M&S which proved his defining retail role. In partnership with then chief executive Sir Stuart Rose, Myners fended off a second hostile bid from Arcadia tycoon Sir Philip Green.

He dubbed the successful defence of M&S as “a victory for polite, calm and diplomatic people against irrational, erratic, rude, crude, volatile and offensive people”.

Myners left the bellwether in 2006 after two years amid a storm of controversy. It was reported senior non-executive Kevin Lomax was determined to oust him from the board, believing he and Rose had become too close.

He has since been critical of Marks and Spencer’s performance under chief executive Marc Bolland. Last year he said “the absence of clear momentum” under the Dutchman was “disappointing”.

But while Myners has often been outspoken, he is regarded as a steady hand on the tiller of several large firms in the City. Moreover, he is a prominent figure in Westminster after holding positions in the treasury and making large donations to Gordon Brown’s Labour Government.

As City minister Myners had his ups and downs. He caused controversy by failing to block former RBS chief Sir Fred Goodwin’s £16.9m pension payoff, yet also steered a £500m bail-out of the British banking system, working through the night and surviving on takeaway curries as he put together the bank rescue Bill.

And it is the life peer’s work for Government which perhaps carries the most relevance to his duties at The Co-op. He led a treasury review of mutuals and industry observers will hope he takes a practical approach to equipping The Co-op for modern retail.

Myners, who will be paid a nominal fee of £1 for his work with the mutual, has vowed to modernise the business which he says has a “proud history”.

“Right now it faces serious challenges in terms of business performance and ensuring that the right governance is in place to deliver in the interests of all its members and customers,” he said today.

If The Co-op is to emerge from the controversy enshrouding it with its reputation intact, the credentials of the influential Myners appear appropriate for the tough challenge.

CV

1985 – 1987 - Chief Executive, Gartmore Investment Management

1984 – 2009 - Non-Executive Director, Bridgepoint Capital

1986 – 2007 - Former Director and Member of Nomination Committee, Henderson Global Trust

2008- 2010 – City minister

1984 - present Various non-executive positions including roles with Natwest, PowerGen, Guardian Media Group, Marks & Spencer, Telefónica, Orange and Cevian Capital.