Ladies who power lunch are celebrated at One Marylebone
SOME of the City’s best-respected women flocked to One Marylebone on Wednesday, to enjoy a slap-up lunch and give themselves a well deserved pat on the back.
The excuse for such a decadent afternoon was Red’s fourth annual Women of the Year awards.
Representing the business ladies at the ceremony were shortlisters Lynn Rattigan, deputy chief operating officer at Ernst & Young and Donna Langley, co-chairman of Universal Pictures, with well-deserved awards going to Caren Downie, buying director at online retailer ASOS and Livia Firth, creative director of eco-age.com.
Other big names on the judging panel which determined the winners included West Ham Football Club vice-chair and Apprentice star Karren Brady, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and Shine Group chairman Elisabeth Murdoch.
■ Catering giant SSP – once part of Compass but now owned by private equity group EQT – proudly describes itself online as “the food travel expert”. Pity then that the firm is unable to correctly spell the name of the capital’s most famous railway station. A receipt from the Pasty Shop at Waterloo, sent to The Capitalist by an amused commuter, describes the busy hub as “Warterloo.” The Capitalist enquired with SSP as to whether this was a silly Halloween hangover but was told it was all a simple IT glitch: “Customers at SSP’s Waterloo station Pasty Shop can now enjoy immaculately spelled till receipts along with great tasting homemade pasties.” You heard it here first, readers.
■ The City headed to Mayfair on Wednesday evening for a mid-week party at Mahiki, hosted by financial advisers Welbeck. Faces from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Icap and Clifford Chance turned out to support the fundraiser for the youth charity Snow Camp, which takes inner city children to the slopes. The Capitalist hears that former All Black player Mark Robinson, who is leading the Welbeck team in the charity’s race around Morzine in January, was also leading the fun and games at the club. Dressed in a novelty all-in-one ski outfit the ex-Wasps player confirmed he would be putting his money on New Zealand this weekend. The Capitalist bets this was before all but two of the poor squad came down with a rather nasty bout of the Norovirus.