Facing the flak at Terminal 5

Judi Bevan meets BAA chairman Sir Nigel Rudd, an Eighties entrepreneur turned City grandee who still relishes tough challenges — and has met several at Heathrow

Sir Nigel Rudd, chairman of BAA and motor group Pendragon and deputy chairman of Barclays Bank, has a reputation for riding towards the sound of gunfire. ‘I like difficult challenges — if it’s not difficult, where’s the fun?’ he says, an impish grin lighting up his solemn face. Not that the opening of Terminal 5 can have been a bundle of laughs amid the public uproar over cancelled flights and mountains of lost luggage. ‘The first few days were a tragedy,’ says Rudd, who admits that BAA must take the blame for some of the equipment not working properly. ‘It was a matter of a number of small things building up into something much bigger.’ Yet he has nothing but praise for British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh, who took most of the flak. ‘I really admired the way Willie took responsibility for the problems and showed true leadership.’

Now 61, Rudd made his name as the co-founder of Williams Holdings, which he built up with Brian McGowan to be one of the Thatcher era’s most successful go-go stocks. These days he is a City grandee, a man they call for when big companies lose their way. He exudes warmth and solidity and might be dull were it not for an irreverent sense of humour bubbling beneath the surface — and a delight in taking risks. ‘I quite like sailing close to the wind because there is a thrill in that,’ he says softly, with a hint of a Derbyshire accent.