Rudolph Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York City who led the city through the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, today said that corporate bosses should aspire to emulate elected officials.

Mr Giuliani, speaking at the Leaders in London conference, said: "Lots of the problems we have seen in the private sector would not have happened if company leaders thought of themselves as politicians in the best sense.

"Corporate leaders need to recognise a constituency responsibility - to stockholders and to the community."

Mr Giuliani identified America's Sarbanes-Oxley Act as prompting such a shift. Among other measures, the legislation calls for chief executives and finance chiefs to sign off accounts personally.

"Private businesses are becoming more similar to government. As I understand it, this movement is the main thrust behind Sarbanes-Oxley," he said.

The stage had been set for Mr Giuliani by Professor Robert Kaplan, of Harvard Business School, who yesterday said that the "cult of the celebrity, highly rewarded CEO" had contributed to a series of business scandals.

However, Mr Giuliani refused to condone placing ceilings on booming executive pay – a bugbear of the corporate governance lobby.

"People are motivated by a combination of altruism and self interest. When you start limiting rewards you get limited success," he said.

The Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, spurred by the high-profile collapse of companies such as Enron and Worldcom, who manipulated their balance sheets to misrepresent their finances, has proven controversial.

Talking to The Times yesterday, Jack Welch, the influential former chief of General Electric, said that the legislation was "too tough".

"I think seeing people punished for what they did is the best deterrent in the world. Better than regulation," he said.

There has also been resistence to new standards of corporate governance in Britain. Sir Dennis Higgs, who was comissioned by the Government to review the riole played by non-executive directors, yesterday voiced frustration at the way his recomendations had been met.

He said that only a small number of companies were "going through the motions" and that many "wished it will go away".

"That is cynical and dissapointing but true," he added.

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