ARK CHAIR’S SPOTLIGHT TURNS TO VACCINES
IT has been a busy few days for Ian Wace. After last Thursday’s Ark Gala raised a spectacular total of more than £17.2m for various children’s charities, the hard work was by no means over for the foundation’s chairman.
Shaking off any late night cobwebs to get straight back to fundraising over the weekend, the Marshall Wace co-founder was at the Tate Modern last night for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) reception.
Wace joined guests such as Bill Gates and development secretary Andrew Mitchell at the museum ahead of this morning’s GAVI pledging conference at the Grange St Paul’s.
Hosted by Gates with Prime Minister David Cameron and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the event aims to highlight the £2.3bn funding gap in the struggle to immunise more than 4m children over the next five years.
And as The Capitalist revealed last week, Ark has made sure the pledges get off to a flying start, promising £1m as part of the foundation’s rotavirus treatment programme in Zambia, to be matched by a donation from the Department for International Development.
MAKE AN IMPRESSION
EQUALLY busy last week was perennial after-dinner speaker Rory Bremner, who popped up at a lunch hosted by Nigel Massey, founder of The Massey Partnership, at the top of the Gherkin.
Bremner held court among his fellow guests of honour at the event, including comedian Ronnie Corbett, composer Sir Tim Rice, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and Bill Muirhead, executive director of M&C Saatchi.
As the rain poured down the Gherkin’s panoramic curved roof, Bremner told The Capitalist how much he enjoys being the after-dinner entertainment at events and awards ceremonies hosted by banks and other City institutions, such as Credit Agricole.
“I don’t know the first thing about sub-prime mortgages, quantitative easing or sovereign debt,” he told his dining companions, before adding, without missing a beat. “But it doesn’t matter at all – because, luckily, neither do they.”
• Harriet Dennys is away.