Mr Kingbeganhiscareerin 1976 as a trainee accountant with Marconi, a defence-electronics subsidiaryofArnoldWeinstock's GEC, Britain'sbiggestindustrialconglomerate.
In a previous incarnation, Marconi was the defence and electronics firm GEC, a cash-rich industrial giant which had begun to look staid as the fashion for high-growth internet and telecoms stocks took hold in the late 1990s.