BT’s campaign to spice up its dry image looked to have taken a step back when it appointed Sir Michael Rake as chairman in February. The man chosen to replace the dry-witted and forthright Sir Christopher Bland, it emerged, was a lifelong accountant.

Sir Michael, 59, has his own set of talents, however, which have helped him to secure in quick succession not only the BT job but now the high-profile task of ensuring that the world’s biggest private equity firms stick to a new code of conduct.

He joined KPMG in 1974 and was elected UK senior partner in 1998. When he left to join BT he was chairman of the accountancy group’s international division.

He has made it his mission to sell the case for good governance and social responsibility in companies. He calls the subject his “hobbyhorse”.

Private equity groups will not have missed his comments in a blog from the World Economic Forum at Davos this year, stating that it was “vital that companies take a longer-term view by encouraging a corporate culture that understands the importance of integrity and trust and its responsibility towards the companies in which it works.

“Increasingly, people want to work for, and customers want to buy products and services from, companies who embrace CSR,” he wrote.

Sir Michael, who is married with four children, is a keen polo player and rugby lover, as well as an assiduous networker. He has also spoken of his concern about the low levels of trust that the public has in business. He is closely involved with the Britain in Europe campaign, is a member of the CBI president’s committee and is also chairman of Business in the Community.

In 1999 his own corporate behaviour was thrown open for scrutiny when a £1.5 million pay package put him in the top league of boardroom heavyweights.

Analysts believe his key task at BT will be succession planning: Ben Verwaayen, the group’s Dutch head, is tipped to leave next year.

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