How Britain's nuclear chief Bill Coley left the US under a cloud – Telegraph
By Richard Northedge, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:02am BST 10/09/2007 Page 2 of 2 Why? The enjoyment diminished after the run-in with the regulator, he admits. He blames the post-Enron environment. "It's less fun when you have to put up with all sorts of media issues," he says. Duke reached a settlement with its regulator and was not prosecuted, he emphasises, but adds: "After 37 years, I said I do not need to do this and I can afford not to do it. "Inevitably you start thinking about your mortality – what have you contributed? It was a conscious decision. I've always spent a lot of volunteer time in the community raising money," he says. "We've given a lot of money over the years to charity: we've focused on that. We've two principal charitable efforts – our church, my university and Jane's university. We said those are places where we can contribute and make a difference. "I'd done 37-and-a-half years with the company. I bought the house at Pinehurst in 2000, which was to be my retirement home and had it renovated. My thought was I was going to play a lot of golf." The thought did not last long, however. He retired in February 2003 and by May was invited to become a non-executive of British Energy, the UK's largest power generator. He also took part-time roles at US companies – an aggregates business, a phone operator and Peabody, the US coal empire once part of Hanson – but the UK company was different. The former nationalised industry had been rescued from insolvency the previous year with the Government re-taking 65 per cent ownership and creditors swapping their debts for the remaining equity. The shares had only just been relisted when Coley joined. Profile: Bill Coley Then within two years British Energy's chief was ousted (an occupational hazard there) and Coley was elevated overnight from non-executive to chief executive. Suddenly he and Jane were mothballing their Charlotte and Pinehurst homes and moving to London. "I would never have done it if Jane had not said she's up for the challenge as well," he drawls. "We've been married 41 years and in all that time I've worked nights and holidays and weekends and she's never complained at it." She is studying European art and exploring her Scottish Presbyterian ancestry. The Scots connection is good for a company headquartered in Livingstone and with reactors north of the Border. He is less sure of his own family origins but jests: "I'm certain that we probably stole sheep." They have a flat in Kensington, two Tube stops from the London office – just as the Charleston house was 10 minutes' commute from Duke's HQ. Though they still have the US properties Jane now calls London home; he has switched his support from American to British football and donated his season tickets for the Carolina Panthers to good causes. The severance with his home country extends even to cancelling British Energy's registration with the SEC to avoid filing US-based accounts. advertisement He may not be around to see new nuclear plants completed but Coley hopes to announce partners by next March. "My ideal scenario is no more than five years in the planning stage and a construction period of five years or less," he says. "We're doing something that is absolutely vital to the future of this country. People take our product for granted, they take electricity for granted. We're concerned about making sure future generations have adequate supplies." And he has no regrets he is doing it in Britain rather than North Carolina. He states: "The reason I agreed to do this is because I thought it was significant – not for money, but to make a contribution, not just to British Energy but to the industry."
Why? The enjoyment diminished after the run-in with the regulator, he admits. He blames the post-Enron environment. "It's less fun when you have to put up with all sorts of media issues," he says. Duke reached a settlement with its regulator and was not prosecuted, he emphasises, but adds: "After 37 years, I said I do not need to do this and I can afford not to do it.
"Inevitably you start thinking about your mortality – what have you contributed? It was a conscious decision. I've always spent a lot of volunteer time in the community raising money," he says. "We've given a lot of money over the years to charity: we've focused on that. We've two principal charitable efforts – our church, my university and Jane's university. We said those are places where we can contribute and make a difference.
"I'd done 37-and-a-half years with the company. I bought the house at Pinehurst in 2000, which was to be my retirement home and had it renovated. My thought was I was going to play a lot of golf."
The thought did not last long, however. He retired in February 2003 and by May was invited to become a non-executive of British Energy, the UK's largest power generator. He also took part-time roles at US companies – an aggregates business, a phone operator and Peabody, the US coal empire once part of Hanson – but the UK company was different. The former nationalised industry had been rescued from insolvency the previous year with the Government re-taking 65 per cent ownership and creditors swapping their debts for the remaining equity. The shares had only just been relisted when Coley joined.
Then within two years British Energy's chief was ousted (an occupational hazard there) and Coley was elevated overnight from non-executive to chief executive. Suddenly he and Jane were mothballing their Charlotte and Pinehurst homes and moving to London. "I would never have done it if Jane had not said she's up for the challenge as well," he drawls. "We've been married 41 years and in all that time I've worked nights and holidays and weekends and she's never complained at it."
She is studying European art and exploring her Scottish Presbyterian ancestry. The Scots connection is good for a company headquartered in Livingstone and with reactors north of the Border. He is less sure of his own family origins but jests: "I'm certain that we probably stole sheep."
They have a flat in Kensington, two Tube stops from the London office – just as the Charleston house was 10 minutes' commute from Duke's HQ. Though they still have the US properties Jane now calls London home; he has switched his support from American to British football and donated his season tickets for the Carolina Panthers to good causes.
The severance with his home country extends even to cancelling British Energy's registration with the SEC to avoid filing US-based accounts.
He may not be around to see new nuclear plants completed but Coley hopes to announce partners by next March. "My ideal scenario is no more than five years in the planning stage and a construction period of five years or less," he says.
"We're doing something that is absolutely vital to the future of this country. People take our product for granted, they take electricity for granted. We're concerned about making sure future generations have adequate supplies."
And he has no regrets he is doing it in Britain rather than North Carolina. He states: "The reason I agreed to do this is because I thought it was significant – not for money, but to make a contribution, not just to British Energy but to the industry."
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