Met chief Stevens to join Travelex board

Sir John Stevens, the outgoing Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, announced his first job in business yesterday when he agreed to join the board of Travelex, the privately owned foreign exchange company.

Sir John will retire from his job as Britain's top policeman in January and will become a non-executive director of Travelex, alongside Peter Birch, the former chief executive of Abbey National.

Lloyd Dorfman, the founder and chief executive of Travelex, said Sir John would bring vast experience to the company's regulatory and anti-money laundering responsibilities as well as experience of running a large organisation.

Travelex refused to disclose Sir John's fees or whether he would have shares in the company.

Mr Dorfman said Sir John's appointment was not a precursor to a stock market float or sale. Travelex is owned jointly by Mr Dorfman and 3i and is valued at more than £1bn, making it one of 3i's biggest single investments.

"Floating the business is something we keep under review but there are no imminent plans. Adding someone of Sir John's calibre to the board makes us that bit more ready when we choose to push the button. Sir John brings not just technical know-how but also from an operational point of view he has been running an organisation of 45,000 people, which is a pretty substantial business in its own right."

Sir John will continue with two ongoing inquiries while working for Travelex. These are the investigations into collusion between the police, the army and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, and the inquiry into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed. He has also taken a job as lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.