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This former army helicopter pilot, more accustomed to negotiating ceasefires in the world's troublespots, is on the attack. He is gunning for boardroom excess - and, if the past few weeks are any guide, David Cranston is a man who likes his prey big and visible.

Cranston's shoes were barely under the director general's desk this month at the National Association of Pension Funds when the organisation - which represents fund managers in charge of pounds 450bn - issued its first warnings about the bonuses being handed out to Britain's corporate bosses.

Without flinching, Cranston and his team have targeted Europe's biggest company, Vodafone. This week, the public outcry prompted by the NAPF's distaste for the pounds 10m payout to the mobile phone group's chief executive, Chris Gent, forced a humiliating apology from the company at its annual meeting and a rebellion by almost 30% of its shareholders against its remuneration policy.

Gent keeps his pounds 10m, but in the world of corporate governance and shareholder activism such a show of disapproval is a real result - companies usually achieve 99% backing from sleepy institutional investors for resolutions put to their shareholder meetings.

Cranston, still trim five years after a 30-year military career by maintaining a strict fitness regime, says that arriving at the NAPF just days after it started to make its first ever recommendations to individual pension funds about how to vote at agms was a "pure coincidence".

"None of it was planned," he says with a laugh. He took the helm on July 3; the NAPF began issuing its recommendations two days earlier.

After reaping the benefit from the blaze of publicity, Cranston believes it is right for pension funds to exert their influence.

"Corporate governance is a very important aspect of the way business is run.

"We as an organisation are very interested in businesses running well because [our members] have a lot of money invested in them."

If the first few...

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