This is taken from the Daily Telegraph:

Whitehall high-flier to quit in row over Blair man
By Katherine Griffiths, City Correspondent (Filed: 15/02/2006)

One of Britain's highest paid civil servants, who is responsible for the British government's investments in a host of companies including the recently floated defence research company Qinetiq, is to step down after a row with Whitehall bosses about the appointment of Lord Birt to a key state-owned company.

Richard Gillingwater, who has been chief executive of the Shareholder Executive since September 2003, is understood to be planning to leave his £500,000-a-year post in June.

The move comes after Mr Gillingwater refused to appoint Lord Birt, one of Tony Blair's favourite advisers, to the position of chairman of Urenco, a huge uranium enrichment businesses, last September.

Mr Gillingwater has been one of the most influential Whitehall mandarins in the business world. The Shareholder Executive oversees companies whose combined annual turnover is £20 billion and include Royal Mail, British Nuclear Fuels, National Air Traffic Services and the Royal Mint.

While Urenco is little known outside nuclear circles, it is likely to be thrust into the spotlight either later this year or next because the Government intends to sell the business in the hope of a multi-million pound windfall.

Senior officials at the Cabinet Office and in other parts of the Government had wanted Lord Birt to be given the job of chairman despite his lack of experience in the nuclear sector because he was thought to have the necessary skills to market Urenco, which is jointly owned by the British, Dutch and German governments, to potential buyers.

Lord Birt, a former director general of the BBC, was Mr Blair's "blue skies" thinker for five years and produced reports for Downing Street on issues ranging from transport to the prison service.

Having failed to get the job at Urenco, which pays about £400,000 a year, he decided to join the private equity firm Terra Firma. Mr Gillingwater instead appointed Christopher Clark, former non-executive of the packaging company Rexam, to the post.

Mr Gillingwater's departure from the Shareholder Executive will be a significant shake-up in relations between the Government and the companies it either completely owns or retains a stake in.

A Department of Trade & Industry spokesman said: "Mr Gillingwater's contract runs until September. It is simply too early to start discussions over renewing it."

The spokesperson added that he was "highly rated in his role". However, sources said the row over Lord Birt had scuppered Mr Gillingwater's chances of having his contract renewed and a battle was already heating up over who would replace him.

Mr Gillingwater's roles have included sitting on the board of Qinetiq until it floated and advising the Government on its move to take advantage of renewed global interest in nuclear assets by auctioning off parts of its portfolio such as Westinghouse, the US-based nuclear engineering company sold to Toshiba last month for $5.4 billion.

He was appointed as the first head of the Shareholder Executive in 2003 after a career in the financial world, including working at BZW, where he was managing director and head of investment banking. In 1998 he joined Credit Suisse First Boston. Previous roles included helping to orchestrate the rescue of British Energy.