Howard Hughes; managing partner at Price Waterhouse
Hyfler/Rosner
March 13, 2009
Howard Hughes: managing partner at Price Waterhouse
Howard Hughes rose to become the world managing partner of
Price Waterhouse, the firm of accountants. He was one of the
organisation's most senior members of staff and oversaw the
financial reports of some the largest companies, including
Unilever, Courage, Fisons, Gulf Oil and the Duchy of
Cornwall. After retirement, he held senior positions at
several leading charities: he was the chairman of the
trustees of the British Heart Foundation from 1999 to 2008.
Hughes also played an important role as a prosecution
witness in the Guinness trial which followed one of the most
infamous City scandals of recent years. Four defendants were
found guilty of trying to inflate the price of Guinness
shares in the hope that it would be easier for that company
to take control of Distillers, a rival. But the methods used
were to the detriment of shareholders, and the good of the
stock market as a whole, and it was thanks, in part, to
Hughes's evidence that convictions were secured.
Hughes attended Rydal School in North Wales. He did not do
National Service because he had his leg in plaster after
incurring an injury playing rugby at the time he might have
enlisted. He joined the Liverpool firm of chartered
accountants Bryce Hanmer & Co in 1955. In 1960 he moved to
London to join Price Waterhouse. He was made a partner in
1970, became director of the London office in 1982 and
served as the UK managing partner from 1985 to 1991.
When Hughes joined Price Waterhouse, the UK-based practice
had 18 partners. On the day he retired, 38 years later, the
firm had just completed a merger with Coopers & Lybrand, to
form PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and had 9,000 partners in
Britain and overseas.
Accountancy changed greatly during the course of Hughes's
career, not least because of advancing technology. Hughes
told one newspaper interviewer: "At one time you would send
a letter to Australia and it would take four days . . . and
it would take four days for the reply to arrive." Hughes
disagreed with those who thought that greater speed lowered
the quality of business judgments. He said that the effects
were positive: "It means you have to do something. You have
to take decisions," he said.
Hughes had a genial character and was accomplished at
managing people. He was also capable, when necessary, of
taking hard decisions with steely determination. One former
colleague remembers his contribution as being "not so much
as an auditor but as a manager, first with the UK firm and
then helping with the global operation". Hughes used his
abilities to great effect in managing many of the careers of
the UK partners of Price Waterhouse. He was an adept judge
of character and was able to harness the attributes of
partners to particular situations. As another colleague
said: "Many UK partners are grateful for the influence
Hughes had on their careers." His ability to spot talent
helped him to manage the UK firm effectively during the
1980s when Price Waterhouse, along with other accounting
practices, was expanding its range of services into tax,
consulting, corporate finance and privatisation. He also
played a leading role in the 1988 merger of the UK and
European firms of Price Waterhouse.
He went on to serve as world managing partner of Price
Waterhouse from 1992-98 and developed a special interest in
China. He was acutely aware of the shift of global commerce
to the East. Referring to the emergence of Eastern Europe,
Russia, China and the Pacific Rim, he said, in 1998: "In the
past ten years half the world's population has suddenly come
on stream as a potential market."
As the partner responsible for auditing the financial
accounts of Guinness in the mid-1980s, Hughes told the fraud
trial, at Southwark Crown Court in 1990, that his firm had
talked with Ernest Saunders, one of the defendants and
Guinness's former chairman and chief executive, about
several multimillion-pound payments. The prosecution
suggested that the payments were integral to the illegal
share-price support operation orchestrated by key figures
involved in the 1986 takeover by Guinness of Distillers. The
guilty verdicts, on charges of theft, false accounting and
breaches of the Companies Act, were only secured after
bruising encounters with Richard Ferguson, QC, for the
defence, who had attempted to undermine the credibility of
Hughes's submissions.
The court was read a letter, written by Hughes to the board
of Guinness three years earlier. It began: "You may be aware
I have on a number of occasions expressed concern that all
directors should be aware of certain transactions relating
to the company's affairs and in particular the acquisition
of Distillers." In response to questioning by Ferguson,
Hughes acknowledged that the language used in the letter was
open to misinterpretation. In addition, Hughes said that one
note about a crucial meeting with Saunders was not written
down until several weeks after the event. He said he had not
written it at the time because it was only later that he
became aware of the significance of the conversations.
Hughes emerged from the tussles with his career and
reputation untainted by the brickbats thrown during the
court proceedings. Price Waterhouse was similarly
unaffected.
Towards and after retirement Hughes was active in a number
of charities. He became a trustee of the Royal London
Society for the Blind in 1985 and during his long
association with the charity he held the posts of honorary
treasurer and chairman of governors of the society's school,
Dorton House, in Sevenoaks, Kent. He became chairman in
1998, holding the post until 2006.
Hughes is remembered as a sensitive moderniser of the RLSB,
which was founded in 1838. He helped it to shift its focus
from the provision of segregated education, training and
employment. With his encouragement, it adopted a more
outward-looking stance.
Hughes also chaired the United Westminster Schools
Foundation and, as chairman of the trustees of the British
Heart Foundation from 1999, he presided over a shift in
emphasis at this charity too. Before his appointment, the
BHF focused on funding research and while its commitment to
research continued, Hughes supported moves to widen the
remit and campaign to assist heart disease prevention. He
was appointed OBE in the 2009 New Year Honours.
Hughes's first wife, Joy, died in 1984. He is survived by
his second wife, Christine, and by four children.
Howard Hughes, OBE, accountant, was born on March 4, 1938.
He died of heart failure on February 4, 2009, aged 70