Once again Sir Richard Sykes finds himself a key player in a high-profile merger; once again his forthright ambition has become a factor in the success or failure of the enterprise.
He came to Imperial as rector in 2000, fresh from his triumph in engineering the merger of Glaxo Wellcome, where he was chief executive, with another drugs giant SmithKline Beecham. Only together could they afford the massive investment in research and development to compete on a global scale, he argued then - and argues now in his bid to create the biggest and best university in the UK with a research budget to outspend Oxford and Cambridge.
But the proposed Glaxo merger in January 1998 - for which, incidentally, he forwent the provostship of UCL - foundered four weeks later when the blunt Yorkshireman clashed with former colleague and boss of SmithKline, Jan Leschly. Neither could agree who would be top dog in the new outfit. There didn't seem to be room in one company for both men.
Following Leschly's departure, however, Glaxo tried again and this time the merger went through successfully before Sir Richard bowed out and turned his formidable energies to transforming Imperial.
He reorganised 35 departments into four faculties and brought in several new senior administrative staff. "In universities you have an academic function and you have an administrative function," he said in an interview this year. "You cannot run places like this without professional administrators. You need people who have been brought up to run these kinds of businesses."
In the present merger plans Sykes has no powerful rival for the top job. Sir Derek Roberts came "reluctantly" out of retirement to fill the post of provost following the sudden departure of his successor. While one would take his "reluctantly" with a pinch of salt - he's clearly enjoying every minute of the drama - he is not in contention and clearly believes Sykes has the ability and vision to head the huge new institution they are dreaming of.
But Sykes's extraordinary decision last week to present a paper to his ruling council advocating advocate tuition fees of £10,500 - so opening up an unnecessary second front in the campaign to convince academic staff at the two universities - must cast doubt on his judgement and create opponents where they had been only doubters.
THE INSTITUTIONS
Past mergers
Imperial
1907 Royal College of Science, the City and Guilds College and the Royal School of Mines merge to form Imperial
1988 St Mary's Hospital Medical School
1995 National Heart and Lung Institute
1997 Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School
2000 Wye College and the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology
UCL
1986 Institute of Archaeology
1988 Institute of Laryngology & Otology
Middlesex Hospital Medical School
Institute of Orthopaedics
Institute of Urology & Nephrology
1995 National Hospital's College of Speech Sciences
Institute of Ophthalmology
1996 Institute of Child Health
School of Podiatry
1997 Institute of Neurology
1998 Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine
1999 Eastman Dental Institute
School of Slavonic & East European Studies
Vital statistics
Imperial
Founded: 1907
Students: 11,000
Staff: 1127
Total income: £390m
Research income 2000/01: £202.3m
Famous almuni:
Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin; The Time Machine author HG Wells; Dr Elsie Widdowson, pioneer of nutrition research in the UK; first four-minute-miler Sir Rodger Bannister; Trevor Philips, chair of the London Assembly; Dr David Potter, founder of Psion plc; and Queen guitarist Brian May.
UCL
Founded: 1826
Students: 17,300
Staff: 3600
Research income 2000/01: £204.4m
Famous alumni:
Philosopher Jeremy Bentham (he's never left - his stuffed corpse is still on display at UCL); Alexander Graham Bell, of telephone fame; pioneering surgeon Lord Lister; Mahatma Ghandi; Junichiro Koizumi, prime minister of Japan; Justine Frischmann, lead singer of the band Elastica; writers Robert Browning, AS Byatt and GK Chesterton.