Private Business-Public Battleground: The Case for 21st Century Stakeholder Companies

Major companies are increasingly coming under fire as they try to pursue their private business on a public battleground - be it Shell & Brent Spar, Monsanto & GM foods or BAA & Heathrow Terminal 5. Private Business-Public Battlegound brings together two former opponents - Des Wilson, founder of Shelter and former Chairman of Friends of the Earth & John Egan, former Chief Executive and ’saviour’ of Jaguar and now Chairman of Tomorrow’s Company - to discuss the value of a stakeholder approach and show how it can help companies operating at the interface between private and public interest. Together they review recent cases and controversies and draw on their experience on the board of BAA to show how this approach can work in practice.

SIR JOHN EGAN is one of the UK’s best known business figures. After his celebrated rescue of the company as Chairman and Chief Executive of Jaguar, he became Chief Executive of BAA plc and helped establish it as one of the outstanding privatisation success stories. He is a former Chairman of Tomorrow’s Company and President of the Institute of Management, and at the time of publication is President-designate of the CBI.

DES WILSON was for nearly 30 years one of the UK’s leading citizen activists on environmental and other social issues. He led the campaign for unleaded petrol throughout Europe, was Chairman of Friends of the Earth UK, and Founder-Chairman for the Campaign for Freedom of Information. He joined Sir John Egan at BAA plc as Director of Corporate and Public Affairs, and after six years there now works as public affairs advisor to a variety of companies and organisations.