Having lunch with Peter Burt, the man who last week launched Bank of Scotland's hostile takeover bid for National Westminster, can be a disconcerting experience.
He clears his plate so quickly that those dining with him often have to choose between putting on a spurt to catch up, or abandoning the struggle and appearing bad-mannered by leaving food on their plates.
The chief executive of Bank of Scotland is a quiet man who lacks obvious charisma, yet radiates an impression of intense energy. That energy is usually held in check, but it was unleashed on NatWest in Britain's largest hostile takeover battle.
Mr Burt, who is 55, has been chief executive since 1996, but it is only since the retirement last year of Sir Bruce Pattullo that he no longer has to look over his shoulder for guidance.
It was Sir Bruce, first as treasurer - the term the 304-year-old bank formerly used for its chief executive - and then as governor, or chairman, who created the Bank of Scotland of today. Mr Burt was his right-hand man from the late 1980s onwards, and another key supporter was Gavin Masterton, now the bank's treasurer, who has been lined up to be chief executive of NatWest.
It could be argued that the audacious raid on the citadels of English banking was the logical continuation of the process that Sir Bruce started in the 1980s.
He saw that the small Edinburgh-based institution had no future if it was confined to the small, rather sluggish Scottish economy.
He also perceived that the fact Bank of Scotland did not have a network of branches in England was an advantage whose merits would steadily become more obvious. Although Bank of Scotland developed a skeletal branch network in key towns for corporate clients, it had to find other ways of reaching most of its English customers. Thus it was the first UK clearer to introduce banking from the customer's personal computer, as long ago as 1985.
Despite acquiring a reputation as one of the most innovative of the clearers and pushing up its share of the UK banking market, the bank did not forget its Calvinist roots. It kept its ratio of costs to income down partly through its brisk and utilitarian approach to what customers needed.
It also eschewed acquisitions outside its main area of expertise - in contrast to other banks. Thus it rejected buying a chain of estate agents, and did not bid high enough to secure a US bank. It publicly prided itself on the Scottish virtue of having "short arms and deep pockets".
Whereas Sir Bruce was a banker from the day he left university, Mr Burt did not start in the profession. After an education at Merchiston, a public school in Edinburgh, and St Andrew's University where he gained a first-class degree, he did a Masters in Business Administration and joined Hewlett Packard, the electronics company, in the US.
He returned to Britain and worked for Edward Bates, a merchant bank that later foundered. When he joined Bank of Scotland in 1975, he initially concentrated on the bank's activities connected with North Sea oil. He was promoted in 1988 to treasurer and general manager after running the bank's international division.
Whereas Sir Bruce was outgoing and conveyed considerable warmth, Mr Burt's approach is more cerebral. "When you ask him a question he thinks hard and then after a pause says something that's always thoughtful and usually original," says someone who works with him. "He is a very clear thinker, but he can express himself bluntly."
He is said to find some of the diplomatic aspects of his job irksome and at social functions lets his colleagues work the room rather than mix much himself. There is a - possibly apocryphal - story that he once slipped away to bed from a dinner party at his own house because he was bored.
Away from the office he is a scratch golfer - his home at North Berwick is close to Muirfield - and plays tennis, reads and is a keen gardener.
As chief executive, he conceived the idea of combining the bank's expertise at lending and processing with the customer base of a supermarket, a project that in 1997 emerged as Sainsbury's Bank.
But another attempt to export the formula to the US ended in tears this summer. The bank struck an alliance with Pat Robertson, the television evangelist, but had to pull out under pressure after Mr Robertson described Scotland as a "dark land" that was "dominated by homosexuals".
The idea of setting up a telephone-based bank with a man who had a direct line to 55 million members of his church in middle America was the kind of bold move that Bank of Scotland has pioneered. Yet Mr Burt, who accepted responsibility for the debacle, has been criticised for naivety in forming the partnership with an eccentric personality well known for saying outrageous things.
"Obviously we got it wrong, and I'm sorry about that. But the fact one makes a mistake on the implementation doesn't invalidate the strategy. If you try to do things you will get it wrong sometimes," he said at the time.
But Mr Burt and his colleagues, accustomed to plaudits from investors and in the media for their canny management, were taken aback by the hostility the incident received in the Scottish media. "They're used to being seen as a plucky little Scottish bank taking on the English giants and when the Scottish media turned against them they were stunned," says a figure in the Edinburgh financial community.
That attitude is likely to change now that Bank of Scotland is taking on NatWest, the epitome of Englishness.
NatWest may have to get used to the idea of being run by Mr Masterton, a 57-year-old who has been with Bank of Scotland since he left school. It may find he has more of a twinkle in his eye than Mr Burt; it is unlikely to find him less purposeful.
