UK: MASTERCLASS - THE ART OF A RECRUITMENT EXPERT.

Alec Reed (right), chairman of Reed Executive, takes a tour round the National Portrait Gallery's BP Portrait Award exhibition with the Guardian art critic, Adrian Searle.

Alec Reed stalks into the gallery and heads straight for a young man who has insects crawling over his shaved head. It is an alarming encounter - the chairman of Reed Executive in a face-to-face with The Entomophiliac (portrait of J R concealing a blue bottle under his tongue) one of the few striking images in the National Portrait Gallery's annual BP Portrait Award show.