Will the NHS respond to Dr Sykes’s treatment?

Corporate titan turned London healthcare chief Sir Richard Sykes faces his toughest challenge yet, says Judi Bevan — but he’s full of praise for the handling of swine flu

Sir Richard Sykes darts across the hallway of the Athenaeum club to greet me. Lightly tanned, thin as a whippet, the former head of GlaxoSmithKline and Imperial College cuts a dash in pinstripes and a tie the colour of crushed raspberries.

Sykes is to ‘change czars’ what Roger Federer is to tennis. In both his former roles he radically changed the institutions he headed. Through the takeover of Wellcome, followed by merger with SmithKline Beecham, he transformed middleweight Glaxo into GlaxoSmithKline, the third largest pharmaceutical group in the world. As rector of Imperial, he dramatically improved standards and secured financial independence by floating Imperial Innovations. No wonder his old colleague, surgeon turned health minister Lord (Ara) Darzi, was so supportive when Sykes applied to be chairman of the newly created Strategic Health Authority for London. ‘He is a superb leader who did wonders at Imperial,’ enthuses Darzi — who, after two years as a minister, has resigned to return to pioneering surgery.

There are some, however, who believe Sykes’s new job may turn out to be the ultimate hospital pass. Sykes himself is under no illusions. ‘It’s a huge challenge. Unlike running a company, the health service is very difficult because it’s a tangled web of many vested interests,’ he says in his still broad Yorkshire accent, while ordering a spartan lunch of asparagus and fish. Lack of clarity particularly irks Sykes, who has an enviable focus — and likes to have his way. ‘He’s very quick on the uptake,’ says Lazard’s Nicholas Jones, who advised Glaxo on its 1995 bid for Wellcome.