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On graft, Africa is yet to prove British businessman's 1995 verdict wrong

Tiny Rowland. [Medium]

I was lucky to attend the last and very tense board meeting of Lonrho in London in 1995 where a titanic power struggle was going on. On one side was Tiny Rowland, the man who started and managed the company and built it for over 30 years.

He was flamboyant, aggressive and totally dominated the company. On the other side was Dieter Bock, a quiet soft-spoken German millionaire who was famous for carrying his papers in a plastic bag and shopping at the cheapest stores in London.

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