the problem (as I see it, this means nothing...) is that corporate jobs are subject to the turns of the business and economic cycles. 7 years sounds about right, between stock market bull markets and bear market cycles. As we learned from watching Enron (an exaggerated example indeed), corporate CEO's are always answering to shareholders and the board. Some (IE Enron) will commit fraud just to keep them happy and keep company bonuses coming.
As has been said many times in aviation, when times get tight, the first thing to go is the plane.
No companies are insulated from changes to their flight departments, look at the Big-3 auto makers. One can argue "why" their flight departments closed, but at the end of the day, their flight departments closed. And a bunch of dudes had to go elsewhere.
GTE Phone company, had a huge corporate flight department, back in the late 80's. Boom, merger with Verizon, severe cutbacks and most planes sold off.
Heck, even the poor guys who fly F-16's have been replaced in some bases by UAV's. One would think that a F-16 pilot, with two wars going on (ok, one now...), and unrest all over the world, would keep his plane....
As far as the guy at London FBO, don't know his situation. Be careful from concluding a guy is "very qualified" merely by his flight experience. It would take all ten of my fingers to count the guys I know who are "very qualified" but complete a-holes and jerks on the road. So why that guy is looking, who knows. You might ask him that, uh, why are you looking ?