RETURN TO SENDER: ROYAL MAIL SPINNER POSTS P45 TO ITV’S PR
ALL GOOD things come to an end, and so it is that ITV is parting company with Tulchan, its financial public relations adviser of four years, The Capitalist can reveal.
The commercial broadcaster, whose new press chief is former Independent and Sunday Telegraph journalist Mary Fagan, has told Tulchan it wants a regime change among its media advisers.
Favourite to take on the mantle is Brunswick, which used to handle media affairs for the Royal Mail when Fagan held the fort there in her previous incarnation as comms director.
It would be a uniting of old friends, of course, since ITV boss Adam Crozier ran the Post Office before joining the broadcaster last April.
“Fagan wants to choose her own people,” said a source close to the developments, who added that Brunswick’s sparring partner Finsbury is understood to be out of the running for the ITV brief because of its work for satellite rival BSkyB.
Meanwhile, Tulchan is also set to lose the services of Andrew Honnor – the former special adviser in John Major’s government who went on to handle the Goldman Sachs IPO – as Honnor has announced he is off to set up a consultancy advising hedge funds and the private equity sector.
However, Tulchan founder Andrew Grant does have something to smile about, following recent account wins from Lloyds Banking Group, security firm G4S and direct shipping firm Findel, not to mention the firm’s new office in Singapore. Every cloud…
ON THE HOUSE
STOCKBROKER by day; one half of a DJ duo by night. That is the busy schedule of Oliver Saunders, who started the house music act Doctor Banker with his medic friend Toby Pillinger to supply the “creative hit” that working in equity sales at a leading German investment bank just couldn’t provide.
Saunders insists he has no plans to give up his day job, but things seem to be taking off for the classically trained pair, both 26, who have been signed to Canadian label Play Records and have put out their first release on iTunes, the Doctor Banker EP.
They are also due to perform in the middle of a field at 1am this Saturday at the Free Range Festival, Leicester’s alternative Bank Holiday event. Expect to see Saunders’ boss Jonathan Potter on the podium who is, apparently, “a bit of a fan”.
TURF WARS
RACEHORSE owners Andy Stewart, the former Cenkos boss and Tim Leslie, founder of James Caird Asset Management, are being given a run for their money on the turf after 14 litigation partners at Eversheds invested in their own racehorse.
Evervescent, a two-year-old gelding that the syndicate bought for €3,500, is being trained by Stan Moore, who learnt his trade from two of the racehorse training greats, Paddy Prendergast and Vincent O’Brien.
The horse has already won major races at Goodwood, where it came fifth, and at Haydock, where it won its first trophy. Next stop Ascot, where Evervescent will run in the Coventry Stakes on the first day of the flat races on Tuesday 14 June – and partner Kevin Elliott predicts “he can upset the favourites”.
RETAIL BOND
THE NAME’s Bolland, Marc Bolland. Yes, the chief executive of M&S (below) has been so “filmic” in his publicity shots with the retailer’s glamorous models that one admirer has been moved to describe him as “the next James Bond”.
Although reprising the role of Gordon Gekko in the next Wall Street movie might be more plausible, as Wall Street director Oliver Stone has personally asked the dapper Dutchman to submit a corporate film for the annual competition run by video hosting platform Vzaar, of which Stone is a shareholder.
Vazaar is still waiting to hear back from Bolland’s people – so back to the Bond analogy, after a source close to the competition noted the Aston Martin-driving CEO’s uncanny resemblance to Daniel Craig.
So what does that make Bolland’s predecessor Sir Stuart Rose? “Timothy Dalton – the one who only appeared in one film,” said the mole, before adding, rather unkindly: “He’s no Sean Connery, is he?”
TRADE SECRETS
DON’T feel you really fit in? Don’t worry – that approach will make you a millionaire, says Greg Zuckerman, the US author of The Greatest Trade Ever, who is tonight addressing the Financial Traders and Brokers Network at the Mint Hotel in the City.
“The career risks you take to be an outlier are too great for many in the industry,” said Zuckerman. “But in this age of financial bubbles it is more important than ever to take unconventional stances.” To hear Zuckerman’s trade secrets at the World Spreads event, please contact Kerry Exall on 07807 233145.