When Something Happens

An extraordinary career journey which took Gerald Corbett from Dixons to the MCC via Railtrack. In the 1980s and 90s Gerald Corbett was one of Britain`s most experienced Finance Directors. In 1997 he took on the challenge of becoming CEO of Railtrack, the new company at the heart of the conservative government`s final and most controversial privatisation: British Rail.

Fragmented into nearly a hundred different companies and suffering from years of under investment, the privatisation was catastrophically flawed and in 1999 and 2000 two fatal train crashes at Ladbroke Grove and Hatfield shocked the country. For the first time, Gerald describes what it was like to be at the centre of such traumatic and tragic events, and he charts the painful public and personal fall-out that ensued. In this gripping memoir we follow Gerald`s recovery from the Railtrack years and witness his skill with consumer facing companies, enabling young start-ups in the new digital age to become multi million global successes.

The last big challenge of Gerald Corbett’s career was the post of Chairman of the MCC. He gives a frank and full account of what it was like to be in the eye of a cricketing storm as he united the club around a new plan and rebuilt three of the stands at Lords while also grappling with the covid pandemic. From the old school world of the City in the nineteen-eighties, to the very different world of the business world today, this is a compelling account of commerce in all its manifestations.