Shock exit at Rolls-Royce raises uncomfortable questions There is nothing to suggest King has done anything wrong. And at least some contracts under investigation, including the Garuda one, pre-date King heading civil aerospace. But Rolls knew a link would be made between King's sudden departure and the SFO inquiry - and did nothing to correct it. As Morris put it: "We were all expecting to see Mark King at the Paris airshow in four weeks" time giving the presentation on aerospace. Either something has come out of the woodwork very recently or the chap just needs to take a break. Asked why King was going, Rishton would only say: "He's had enough. He's tired. It's a very stressful job. He wants to spend more time with his family. But as Zafar Khan, an analyst at Societe Generale, says: "Spending time with the family normally means you've been fired. It's a very strange development because he's a young ambitious guy and we thought he was one of the rising stars in the outfit. Rolls" information vacuum invites all kinds of conspiracy theories. As Khan says: "With King, you can speculate it's something to do with the bribery inquiry. But maybe it's also a change of culture. A lot of senior people have gone and insiders say Rishton wants a new kind of emphasis. Rishton, 54, became a Rolls non-executive in 2007 before taking the top job in March 2011. He replaced the much-feted Sir John Rose, who had led the company for 14 years. Since then, former finance director Andrew Shilston has gone. So too has former chief operating officer Mike Terrett. Now King is going. Not only that. Sir Simon Robertson yesterday stepped down after eight years as chairman, alongside two long-serving non-executives - Ian Strachan and Peter Byrom. The upshot is a change of the old guard and a newish chief executive striking an uncompromising tone, telling the AGM: "Neither I nor the board will tolerate improper business conduct of any sort and will take all necessary action to ensure compliance." The question some analysts are now asking is whether the two are linked. In short, whether the SFO and, perhaps more worryingly, the US Department of Justice, will find evidence pointing not to one-off incidents of bribery but a more endemic cultural problem under the former management. Rishton may have an inkling, given that Rolls has passed its own file of evidence to the SFO. The SFO would not comment. But, as Khan pointed out, it is better to have made changes to executives before any findings - rather than face a Barclays Bank Libor-style meltdown, where enforcement action triggers a board clear-out. "They would be able to say that the people who are culpable have already gone," said Khan. Until Rolls speaks up, the issue of King's departure will not go away.