Alastair Ross Goobey, the departing chief executive of Hermes, the fund management group, is seldom lost for words - as he is the first to admit. At his valedictory party at the Stationer's Hall in London last week, Ross Goobey confessed that even when he opened the fridge at home and the light came on, he felt compelled to make a speech.

At the gathering attended by the cream of the London fund management community, Ross Goobey promised his successor Tony