Andrew Macfarlane was such a successful, well-liked finance director at Land Securities that his colleagues successfully nominated him for the Accountancy Age Awards Blue Chip FD of the Year in 2005 – even though he had already left the company to go to Rentokil Initial.

Despite the huge impact Macfarlane had at the once-sleepy property giant, he decided that he “missed the challenge of working for an international business”. And so he upped sticks and joined the rat-catching and lavatory hand towels company instead.

He joined at a challenging time. The group had just lost its chairman, Sir Clive Thompson, and its chief exec when Macfarlane took up his post two-and-a-half years ago – and now it’s facing very similar problems again: chairman Brian McGowan has said he will retire in May but the City also wants the head of the chief exec, Doug Flynn. That’s the price they’re demanding as Rentokil Initial faces almost certain demotion from the FTSE-100 tomorrow (Tuesday).

Will this be Macfarlane’s chance to shine again? Or will he be forced to walk the plank, too? Either way, he’s surely got a much bigger challenge than the one he first contemplated when the headhunter’s call came through.