Almost from the first day of his five years at the helm of Standard Life, Sir Sandy Crombie has had to deal with criticism and speculation about his retirement.

Next month he hits the magic age of 60, the normal retirement age at the company he’s served for more than 40 years, but if he’s planning to go, he’s not about to announce it.

“The board judges who is the best person to do the job,” is his stock answer. “When I took over there was scepticism, because I was an insider and in my mid-50s, and I was asked how long I could do this, and I said ‘five years’. I meant five years and possibly more.”

Does that mean he is staying on?

“Every company has to consider succession,” he said. “It is a question of making sure that I have a strong team around me. Anything can happen and you have to have a strong team to run the company. We think very hard about succession, about the opportunity to appoint from inside or even from outside.”

It is hard tell whether that means he’s about to go, or whether he’s settling in for another long haul, but there is no obvious sign of Crombie winding down.

He has managed to squeeze a great deal into those five years, such as taking the mutual to the stock market.

It was a baptism of fire. Within a fortnight of taking over as chief executive in January 2004, he was very publicly accused of “waffle” during a stormy session before the Treasury Select Committee. As the insurer cut bonuses on policies and axed thousands of jobs as it demutualised, Crombie faced almost constant flak and even the announcement of his knighthood in this year’s New Year’s Honours led to some fresh criticism.

One tabloid called him a “fat cat boss who axed 5,000”, while a commentator on a broadsheet went as far as bizarrely suggesting that the title might have been a reward for Standard Life’s backing of the Lloyds TSB/HBOS merger.

“I presumed it was for what I have done in the company I have worked for over the last 40 years,” said Crombie, betraying no hint of anger or animosity towards his critics.

“It was graciously offered and I felt it would be unreasonable to turn it down.”

But did he understand why some people thought it was wrong to reward the boss of a financial company in the current climate?

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