The New Year's Eve hangover still appears to be lingering for former New Millennium Experience Company chief executive Jennie Page.

Ms Page, who has resigned from her position, had been placed in charge of the British media's favourite object of ridicule in 1996, and was contracted to complete her task in 2001.

However it was beset by ticketing, queuing and catering gripes, and most recently it was found to have met only 3% of its attendance target for 2000 by the end of January.

'Formidable and ferocious'

Aged 55, with a personality variously referred to by the Dome's original minister, Peter Mandelson, as "indomitable", "formidable" and "ferocious", Ms Page was thought to be the woman for the job.

Born and raised in Coventry, the eldest daughter of a car company executive, she attended a local girls' grammar school before reading English at London University.

After contemplating a life in academia, she chose instead to join the Civil Service, where she carved out a long and distinguished career at the Ministry of Public Works, the Department of the Environment and the Department of National Heritage.

She has also chalked up stints on secondment with the British National Oil Corporation and the London Docklands Development Corporation and served on the board of Railtrack.

In 1990 she became head of English Heritage, from where she was headhunted to take command of 20,000 staff and a budget of £758m as the Dome's chief executive.

Fiery reputation

Even in the Dome's early stages, Ms Page earned herself a fiery reputation with her ebullient and often quixotic style of management.

Stephen Bailey, one of the project's original consultant creative directors referred to her in his diary as "a noisy mouse, no slave to fashion or fitness".

One Labour minister, who chose not to be named, defined her as "a cross between a porcupine and an armadillo".

Her approach was captured on film for BBC2's four-part series, The Dome: Trouble at the Big Top.

Struggling with deadlines and a constant stream of setbacks she was seen alternately browbeating and cajoling her staff.

'Shouting and screaming'

She later admitted to one interviewer that she specialised in "shouting and screaming".

But Ms Page added: "I don't think anyone takes me very seriously when I do it. Most of the time they laugh at me, and it makes me feel better to get it out of my system."

In another confession, Ms Page attributed her robust and rather forceful approach to the criticism she feels she attracts as a woman in charge.

But her appointment of other women in key roles and the adoption of the slogan "I have seen the future and the future is female", is testimony to her defiant stance.

A self-confessed workaholic, Ms Page lives with her partner in Kennington, south London, where she occasionally retreated from her Dome to snatch around four hours' sleep a night.

Such is her dedication, she claims not to have taken a summer holiday since 1981.