The incoming chief executive of that most English of brands, Rolls-Royce, has admitted he plays the “Welsh card” when abroad to dodge anti-England sentiment.
Welshman Warren East, who takes over as chief executive of Rolls-Royce in six weeks, said: “I’ve played the Welsh card around the world in business. It’s because Wales is quite low profile, the Welsh card is different. I’ve found that if you talk about coming from Britain people assume it’s England. For whatever reason, with some countries England or English is not necessarily that popular. If you say: ‘No, no, I’m from Wales’, immediately you’re different and have a connection.”
East, who was chief executive of the multinational semiconductor and software design company ARM Holdings, was speaking at a discussion about the Welsh diaspora at the Hay festival in Wales.
He said there were many talented Welsh people involved in commerce and finance around the globe, but ducked the question of what particular characteristics made Welsh people good businesspeople. “That’s quite a hard one to spot,” he said.
East also flagged up how many Welsh people were promoted to positions of power during his time at ARM. He said when he joined ARM two of the 10 people who were running the business were Welsh, by the time he had finished around five were. “That’s quite a high proportion,” he said.
Asked if the Welsh were hostile to wealth creation, East said he thought the reticence was a British rather than a Welsh “disease”. He said: “Being ashamed of creating wealth is part of that reticence.”
East said the way some businesses behaved invited criticism and resulted in an “anti-business climate” in the press. He added: “It makes a good story in the media to go kicking rich people. Because it’s quite easy.” He also suggested he was pleased that there was now a majority government in place.
“After five years of coalition government it begins to feel a bit better than it was five years ago. But that’s not a political comment,” he said.