In a ferociously competitive business, which still retains a whiff of the macho that has been exorcised from many financial markets, success will always stir up jealousy. Andi Case has faced plenty.

His profile shot up when he became chief executive of Clarksons in June 2008 after his predecessor, Richard Fulford-Smith, was ousted by its board in, as the London Times floridly put it, “a night of the long knives prompted by a multimillion-pound dust-up with some Kremlin-backed customers”.