People: A new chair for Razzall

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Razzall, former head of law firm Frere Cholmeley Bischoff, has found a fresh role at the entrepreneurial end of the small company market. He is to become chairman of a new investment concern, Square Mile Capital, built out of the PLUS Fund, which is the brainchild of Tony Drury, founder of PLUS and AIM adviser St Helen’s Capital and now chairman of PLUS-oriented Axiom Capital.

A former chairman of ambitious AIM telephony flop Telephone Maintenance Group and more recently made chairman of The Weather Lottery (which has announced a retreat from online gaming and whose shareholders include John Botros, former associate of boxing promoter Frank Warren), Razzall brings considerable boardroom experience to his new post. Drury, who took the chair at Axiom to ease regulatory concerns over its governance, is optimistic about the role that Square Mile will be able to play.

David Sinclair, previously the driving force at Golders Green-based Axiom, was recently fined £68,000 by the Financial Services Authority, for unwittingly allowing boiler room practitioner David Mason to use a bank account under his control. The FSA stressed that Sinclair had given full cooperation to its investigation.

Square Mile Capital provides Drury and his colleagues at Axiom with a more positive preoccupation. Razzall’s presence adds bottom.