Jonathan Haslam, the most recent Government information head to
have flown the Whitehall nest, is to become the London Metal Exchange’s
first corporate affairs director.
The London Metal Exchange is the world’s largest market for base metals,
and its traders set worldwide benchmark prices for metals. It was hit by
scandal in the summer of 1996 after a multimillion pound fraud involving
a Japanese copper trader was uncovered.
The fraud cost the trader’s company, Sumitomo Corporation, pounds 1.6
billion.
The trader, Yasuo Hamanaka, is on trial in Tokyo for fraud and
forgery.
Before Haslam’s appointment, the exchange’s public relations were
handled by chairman Lord Bagri, chief executive David King, members of
the board and its agency Citigate Communications Group.
Haslam is the seventh government information head to announce his
departure since Labour’s election to government in May.
’I’m leaving because I’ve been extremely fortunate to have been offered
a fantastic job,’ he explained.
Haslam became director of information at the Department for Education
and Employment in May 1997, after working for just over a year as John
Major’s chief press secretary. He was deputy press secretary at No 10
for four years before that.
