ROGUE TRADING TALENT PULL IN THE CROWDS AS CITY ENTERTAINMENT
SOMETHING to look forward to for UBS alleged fraudster Kweku Adoboli, once he has emerged from the trauma of the courts: following in the footsteps of the original rogue trader Nick Leeson by entertaining drunken clients at corporate events.
Leeson has been quietly raking it in on the after-dinner speaking circuit for years, says celebrity booker Stanley Jackson, who first took a gamble on the man who broke Barings by hiring him as the “entertainment” at a dinner organised by Caspian Publishing founder Mike Bokaie.
“Just about every sector of trade and commerce was represented,” recalled Jackson. “Including several firms of accountants and lawyers who were at that very moment appearing in court to defend themselves from their part in Barings’ collapse.”
Jackson was speaking at last night’s launch of his book Get Me A Celebrity!, where guests including former CBI director general Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham and Luke Johnson, chairman of Risk Capital Partners, heard about the “highs and lows” of working with celebrities.
“Despite the Murdoch meltdown, I remain optimistic about the business of celebrity hire 20 years after stumbling across it,” he said. “People with talent continue to need audiences.” Although whether rogue trading is a “talent” is, of course, debatable…
MODEL BEHAVIOUR
CNBC has already delved into the past of media baron Richard Desmond and Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon, and tomorrow night it is the turn of supermodel Naomi Campbell.
In the 30-minute CNBC Meets interview with Tania Bryer, Campbell (bottom) revisits her childhood home in Streatham for the first time in 27 years, where its new owners have kept many things the same – the door handles, the mirrors… and the plant in the garden named after the famously volatile model.
“Dark and fiery – I’m flattered,” she tells Bryer, before pointing out the grave of her first dog. “We dressed him in clothes from Mothercare and he’s under there. I made the whole family come to the funeral.”
SENIOR MOMENT
AGE IS no barrier to 69-year-old Alan Harris, manager of Charles Stanley’s Brighton branch, who was the most senior candidate to pass this summer’s Private Client Investment Advice & Management exams.“It was a relief to pass and amusing to hear that I was the senior statesman of the group,” he told The Capitalist.
In fact, Charles Stanley is pretty sure Harris is the oldest candidate to pass the PCIAM diploma “full stop” – although rumours persist of a 70-year-old currently working towards taking that record.
Not that Harris is bothered – he and his wife have just returned from a canoeing holiday along the wilderness of the Yukon River in Canada, arriving 200 miles and eight days of paddling later at the Gold Rush town of Dawson City.
COLLECTOR’S ITEMS
CLIFFORD Chance takes its art very seriously – the 1,200 original prints in the firm’s expanding collection are designed to “make the day go better”.
“The art is not only asked to act as an antidote to the daily task of lawyering but also to provide stimulation and inspiration,” said Clifford Chance’s art curator Nigel Frank. “Challenging it can be, insipid it cannot.”
So look out for the latest additions to the collection, which will hang in the law firm’s Canary Wharf office: a prize-winning set of prints from Polish artist Marta Lech (below) where the light causes “the illusory impression of measured, finite structure”.
LEARNING CURVE
THE CITY has a responsibility to provide opportunities for bright young people to ensure they reach their full potential, said Lord Mayor Michael Bear at last night’s City of London Business Traineeship Awards at Deutsche Bank.
Top of the leaderboard at the awards, which marked the end of the City of London Business Traineeship scheme, was Société Générale, which won Employer of the Year for giving 12 paid summer internships to young people from some of London’s most deprived boroughs.