Mr Laidlaw is to run the venture for Carlyle and CVC Capital Partners, with the aim of investing up to $5b in oil and gas fields in Africa, Southeast Asia and the North Sea. While other private equity groups have shown interest in exploiting the North Sea off the British coast, Mr Laidlow's brief to build up an operating business (rather than making minority investments) suggests a more serious aim.

'Sammy Two Pools'

Now 59, he was given the nickname 'Sammy Two Pools' by parts of the media when he was chief executive of British energy giant Centrica. His personal lifestyle was seen as being at variance with the fate of most members of the population who, he warned, might be put at risk of blackouts if the government overtaxed the energy sector. But under his eight years at the helm, Centrica was seen as undergoing a transformation from a sprawling set of businesses to one that was far more focused. 

From Eton to Macfarlanes

Before Macfarlanes, he attended Eton College (the same school that Prime Minister David Cameron and many other leading Conservative politicians went to) and then Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. Source: Financial Times