Nationalisation of Northern Rock in financial services. The OFT concluded that "public support for Northern Rock did not, during that period, have a significantly adverse impact on competition." In February 2008, Ron Sandler was appointed Executive Chairman by the government. Bryan Sanderson, Sir Ian Gibson, David Jones and Paul Thompson resigned from the board at this time. Gary Hoffman became Chief Executive of Northern Rock in October 2008. He has previously been the vice chairman of Barclays and a former Managing Director of Barclaycard. With the appointment of Gary Hoffman, Ron Sandler changed to a Non-Executive Chairman position. On 4 November 2010 Hoffman left
Nationalisation of Northern Rock the preferred option. Virgin announced that Peter McNamara, a former Alliance & Leicester managing director, would be responsible for risk management at Northern Rock if its bid succeeds. The other front-runner was an investment company Olivant, headed by the former chief executive of Abbey, Luqman Arnold. Olivant would have kept the Northern Rock brand. By 17 November, a total of ten companies had put forward proposals for the bank. Among the other suitors for Northern Rock were private equity firm Cerberus, JC Flowers and Lloyds TSB. In early December JC Flowers dropped out of the bidding. In March 2009, it