Business Diary: October 5

STEPHEN Wildridge, the new chief executive of pet drugs supplier Animalcare, is gradually getting accustomed to the ways of the

City.

While he managed to make it all the way down from Masham to the City of London yesterday for Animalcare's full-year results, the London tube strike foiled many a local resident.

Wildridge arrived at the offices of his PR company, Walbrook, at Bank in the heart of the City yesterday morning suited and booted and

on time, only to find the excuses pouring in.

Wildridge may have made it all the way down from North Yorkshire, but it appears the journey to the City was too much for a number of Mayfair-based-fund managers.

Success breeds success

ACCORDING to the Sunday Times Rich List, Harrogate-based entrepreneur Peter Wilkinson is worth a cool 300m. What, then, drives him to carry on working six days a week?

"I still love succeeding," said the 56-year-old hi-tech pioneer.

"I always will love succeeding. Everything I do I like to be at the utmost of my ability."

Written proof

SIEGMUND Warburg was a rare thing, according to biographer Niall Ferguson. He was a banker who wrote things down.

The Harvard professor was approached to write the biography of Warburg after the publication of his two-volume history of another German-Jewish banking dynasty, the Rothschilds.

"The business of being a financial historian means that you have

got to seize these opportunities when they present themselves. Not many banks open up their archives and not many bankers kept meticulous records like he did."

Prof Ferguson, who had access to more than 10,000 hitherto unpublished letters and diary entries, described the source material as "golden".

At 46, he is too young to have met the banker, who died in 1982. But he got to know his son and daughter while writing the book.

He also interviewed many peers and colleagues, including Henry Grunfeld, his long-term business partner and friend.

Prof Ferguson said: "Warburg was a perfectionist. In terms not just on work but on everything. He could be a demanding employer. But always very charming. And funny."

Prof Ferguson does not have many links with Yorkshire, other than a late father-in-law who hails from these parts and the fact that he probably would have gone to York University had he not gone to Oxford.

He is looking forward to his visit later this month though, when he comes to the Ilkley Literature Festival. "I know the song and I will bring my hiking boots. I hope I get the chance to sample the Dales," he told Diary.

Silverstone gold

LEEDS United may not yet have risen to the top of the Championship but another sporting star gave the city something to celebrate after leading his team to victory in its class on the tracks of Silverstone.

Team LNT, headed by entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson, drove the Ginetta G40, a dual-function road and race car, to success in the production class of 24 competing cars at the Britcar 24 Hours endurance competition.

As well as Mr Tomlinson, the chairman of care homes to construction conglomerate LNT Group – which owns Ginetta – the team featured Nigel Moore, from York, Stewart Linn, from Morley, near Leeds, and Mike Simpson, from Hull.

They crossed the finish line, having completed an extraordinary 521 laps and 1,672 miles, at a rain-soaked Silverstone, at 4.30pm on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Tomlinson said: "The G40 is a brand new car which we drove down on Wednesday from our Leeds factory and now we have a class win on our first outing. The set-up was right, it was consistent in both the wet and dry and was very easy on the tyres – we've barely had any time in the pits.

"While we didn't have the outright pace for overall pole, we've put in a consistent performance – which is what endurance racing is all about."