Answered in BOLD.
All good business men (and lets make no mistake NC is right up there) have a drive that goes beyond the every day. He was trusted by ML - that trust doesn't come from being "friends" it comes out of the fact that NC is very good at what he does and therefore had built their relationship on respect. Never accepting second best will be one of his attributes (and that will be in all aspects from the people around him to the kitting out of the training ground) - some can deal with that some can't. Another will be to make decisions on all the information he can gather at the time although at the end of the day the decision is his alone and he will live or die based on those decisions. I for one hope he stays for a long time.
Anyway thanks for the update FF - great to see that NC doesn't just want us to have a good training facility he wants the best there is.