The naming of Ian Smith as chief executive of Reed Elsevier had some analysts bemused. For those who have watched him move from oil to consultancy, through healthcare to construction, it would have been more surprising if he had made a predictable move.

Mr Smith wrote and published a book, Mosquito Pathfinder, with his father, Albert, about the latter's time as an RAF navigator during the Second World War. He may need his father's talents to negotiate his way through the media world.

He is known as a dealmaker: merger talks with Peter Redfern, then the George Wimpey chief executive, began two months after Mr Smith began at Taylor Woodrow. He also sold General Healthcare Group to Netcare, the South African healthcare company.

Although it is not thought that Reed Elsevier, which has a £12 billion market value, is for sale, management is used to having someone at the helm who can close deals. Reed's share price rose 2 per cent after Mr Smith's appointment was announced, to finish at 560p.

Sir Crispin Davis, his predecessor, shook up the company's Anglo- Dutch structure, which had previously maintained a separate board in each country. He was unsentimental about its print business, which he is trying to sell. Similarly hard-nosed was the sale of the Harcourt education business last year, which he bought in 2001.

With a £1.87 million pay-off after the £5 billion merger with George Wimpey, it is unsurprising that Mr Smith, 54, has not rushed into a job.

The father of three and lifelong Manchester United supporter started his career at Shell, where he worked in the Middle East and learnt to speak Arabic, after a geology and geography degree at Oxford. Shell sponsored him through an MBA at Harvard, after which he set up the Monitor management consultancy.

After selling his stake in Monitor, he worked at Exel, the logistics group, before becoming chief executive of General Healthcare Group in 2004.