De La Rue on March 2005 Sequoia was sold to Smartmatic, a multi-national technology company which had developed advanced election systems, voting machines included. In 2003, the company acquired the Debden-based banknote printing operations of the Bank of England. In 2003 and 2004 the company supplied banknotes to Iraq. The company was recognised by Hermann Simon as a role model for other small- to medium-sized businesses in his book "Hidden Champions". The Highest Perfection, a history of De La Rue was published in 2011. Written by Peter Pugh for De La Rue, it covered the years 1712–2003. In August 2014, the company announced
Hippolyte De La Rue Air Vice Marshal Goble, proposed despatching a six-squadron air expeditionary force to Great Britain, with De La Rue, then the RAAF's seventh most senior officer, in charge. Air Marshal Richard Williams, Goble's long-time rival for leadership of the Air Force in the 1920s and '30s, later contended that the CAS was unduly favouring his fellow RNAS veteran and seaplane specialist to lead what would have been the RAAF's largest formation to date, particularly considering that other contenders for the role such as Group Captains Cole, Frank McNamara, and Henry Wrigley had greater landplane experience than De La Rue. The concept