One of five

Let's remind you of the interview panel that gave Richard Sharp such a hard time in his Quest for the Siege Perilous at the top of the BBC, and decided that he, above all the other investment bankers in the world, was capable of recommendation to The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. 

Panel Chair: Sarah Healey, (BA Modern History and English, Magdalen College Oxford, captain of the 1998 winning team in University Challenge. She met her husband at Oxford, where he picked up a doctorate in philosophy to follow his 1st from Cambridge. He's now a barrister specialising in property litigation.  

Catherine Baxendale (Dr Challoner's Grammar, Aylesbury and B.Sc, LSE) an HR consultant, formerly with Tesco and Procter & Gamble (brand manager for Pantene). In 2014 she was commissioned to write a report for the Cabinet Office on how to best manage senior talent moving from the private sector into the Civil Service, via Francis Maude. Baxendale donated £50,000 to the Tories in 2011, and in 2017, she was on the shortlist to become the party’s candidate in Hitchin & Harpenden, a contest won by Bim Afolami. Husband Tony is an entrepreneur and part of the Legatum Institute and they run an organic walnut farm in Hertfordshire. 

Mrs Blondel Cluff (Sir William Herschel Grammar, Slough and LL.B University of Westminster), lawyer, jeweller, and wife of Algy Cluff, oilman and one-time owner of The Spectator. 

The Senior Independent Panel Member was Sir William Fittall, a retired civil servant and Anglican lay reader.  Sir William (Christ Church, Oxford) settled disputes about Bishops and Vicars; he died in March last year, aged 68. 

Whilst Mr Sharp believes he was appointed on merit, the panel found four other applicants appointable, from a total of eight invited to interview out of a total of 23 candidates. Thus his superior 'merit' was identified further by Oliver Dowden and Boris Johnson.