I am well and truly out of sequence now which I have decided is good as I can write things down as they come to mind. Perhaps catalysed by a previous blog.
In the late 90s I worked for a company called BZW, The Investment banking arm of Barclays bank. It was there that somehow I landed the most incredible job I could ever have dreamed of. I had moved to BZW from UBS and my role was to manage a sales team originally servicing clients in Scotland. This was in fact something of a smokescreen as the management, who hired me, had bigger plans for me. They did not want to upset too many people who were progressively and sensitively pushed aside.
The Scottish Sales team were amongst the best people I had ever worked with. Richard Moulder who now lives in Australia and is a really big hitter in the finical world. Graham Jinks who though not as successful as Richard in the longterm himself was ‘top drawer’ Finally a man called Chris Carpmael who I hired on Richards advice. What a hiring. Chris had been an officer in the Royal Marines and won the Sword of Honour in training. He was an incredible human being. I will write about him and other marines I have met in a later post.
After time my remit in BZW changed to encompass ‘The Rest Of The World’ excluding the UK and US. I had responsibility for certain UK Market operations in our offices in Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Madrid. All other European financial centres in Europe were completely up to me. At the time BZW was working hard to win government mandates to manage ‘privatisations’. The potential fees were huge and there were one or two offerings on the horizon. My job was to make sure we knew all the key players in the various institutions.We would look to help them with their general UK investments of course but prepare the ground so when we needed to ‘build a book’ we would know who to go. I had a team of people working for me directly from various nationalities and I would accompany them on trips to meet their clients. My role was to be ‘the senior man’ shake hands offer warm words and then go to lunch or dinner in an expensive restaurant. When I was away my ‘office’ was run by a woman called Vanessa Braddock. She was my assistant ‘i am not his secretary’ she would insist -way ahead of her time. She was six foot tall and kept everyone in order and when i was away she watched over proceedings. She had a degree in desk top publishing which was, as I will relate some time later, a game breaker for me.
Anyway the Head of the Corporate Finance division was a man called Simon De Zoete. An Old Etonian he had a reputation for many things. I had a colourful relationship with him. I will definitely write some incidents up. I think the one quality all will agree he was ‘podium quality’ at was ‘arrogance’.
Anyway Simon suggested I spread my wings and visit the middle east. This was just great as I discovered one of my colleague had spent his youth in Oman – his father was a surgeon. He by the way was a serious economist. Andrew could speak reasonable Arabic and educated me as to the do’s and dont’s of how to behave in Arabic company. I went everywhere met some amazing people including a number of sheiks-most had been to Harrow!
Visiting the Middle east was fine but bigger fish were identified which led to a wholly unusual week which I later repeated, in the same format, on two further occasions.
I was playing for Harpenden on a Saturday. It was the end of the season and as a result I was on the first team pitch on The Common. I imagine it was playing for a ‘Harpenden eleven’. I had already told the captain that I would have to leave at 6 30 come what may.
I did a lot of travelling at this time and I had found a delightful local man called Martin Pavitt who was a former Police Motor Cyclist. Now retired he drove businessmen to the airport in his immaculate Mercedes. He and I became friends and he often took me for rides on my motorbike-more on that one too- improving my skills. Martins particular thing was punctuality. Six thirty meant just that to the very second the car would roll up. For most clients he wore a chauffeurs hat-but on my insistence not for me. His charges were the equivalent of the local taxi firms so everyone was winning.
At six thirty on the dot Martin’s car crept up to the pavilion. I was already showered. I think we bowled first and I had batted early as no-one seemed concerned when I left. Martin drove me to Heathrow where I got the 9 pm flight to Singapore. I had pushed my luck with Simon De Zoeete as I had insisted on ‘First Class if I am going that far’. He testily agreed. Singapore Airlines First Class is awesome and I sat back put on a movie and drifted off. I arrived in Singapore on Sunday night- local. Had some nosh and stayed in the utterly fabulous Four Seasons Hotel. The following morning I met with The Singapore Investment Authoritie’s top man. One of the largest financial Institutions in the world he was a charming mixed race gentleman. Some of his colleagues joined for coffee and I was struck by the quality of all attending-how did I get there? One more meeting then on to The Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. I stayed in a fabulous hotel overlooking the harbour had two meetings and then lunch in an amazing place. Now I know this sounds all sounds stupid but the people I was meeting had great influence. I potentially had something they all needed being access to a major UK privatisations.
Next it was off to Sidney. I remember that BZW, who in fact had a Sidney Office, had had a major row with a client. The Bankers Trust of Australia. Somehow it was staged for me to make a formal apology on behalf of ‘Head Office’. We went to the equivalent of the post office tower for lunch and I had a pee in what I was told was the highest bog in the world. It had windows in front of the urinals and the views were fantastic. It was made out I had flown from London in order to apologise in person on behalf of the CEO. I apparently say sorry well as the feed back of my visit was excellent and the rift healed. The next day I did a ‘Melbourne and back in a day’ before a dinner in a restaurant/bar on Bondi beach with some of the BZW locals. I remember it well because I had committed to a dry month previous to my visit but this was the day when I was off the leach. As I walked into Sidney airport the following morning I was licking my lips, Singapore First Class one stop in Singapore, bring it on.
Now I may have lost time here but I swear some how the itinerary worked. My plane touched down On Friday morning, all due to the circulation of the earth. I got to my desk at about 10 am. I felt utterly terrible but I put on a brave face. One of my senior colleagues passed my desk and paused. ‘I have not seen you for couple days’ he said, ‘have you been in Scotland?’ I nodded.
Tales of a Life Well Lived 