BORIS BROTHER PLOTS HIS PASSAGE TO INDIA
FOR ONCE, Boris Johnson wasn’t the centre of attention.
Instead, his brother Jo Johnson MP took the spotlight at the Number 11 Downing Street reception to launch Reconnecting Britain and India, the book of essays Johnson co-edited with the Indian Chambers of Commerce secretary general Dr Rajiv Kumar.
Rachel Johnson, editor of The Lady, was also representing the Johnson clan, while London Stock Exchange chief executive Xavier Rolet, Driss Ben-Brahim, partner at Man GLG Partners, and Clifford Chance partner Simon Gleeson were among those who heard trade minister Stephen Green outline how the British government is determined to forge a “new special relationship” with New Delhi.
The point is no doubt elaborated on by Prime Minister David Cameron in the “personal reflections” on the ties between the two countries he contributed to the book.
RUSSIA WITH GLOVES
IT WAS billed as “one of the most enthralling events of the corporate age”: a white-collar boxing match between rival Moscow and London traders.
However, Mark Nicholls from ICAP, James McLaughlan from JP Morgan and Sean Mooney from Goldman Sachs going several rounds with Alexei Poliakov from SocGen Moscow, Anatoly Mishnov from LukOil and Alexander Matveev from Renaissance Capital this Friday was obviously not enough of a draw, as the fundraiser sold only 100 tickets and has been downsized from the original venue of Kensington Town Hall to organiser The Real Fight Club’s City gym near Liverpool Street.
The first rule of fight club: give spectators sufficient advance warning. Let’s hope this announcement pulls in the crowds for the rescheduled “big event” at Kensington Town Hall on 25 November – although the fighters have yet to be confirmed…
FREEDOM FOR DAME
SHE has already been made a Dame, but yesterday the list of Judi Dench’s honours grew ever longer as she received the Freedom of the City at a ceremony at the Guildhall for her services to acting.
“I feel very honoured,” said the 76-year-old thespian as she accepted her framed parchment certificate in the Chamberlain’s Court, adding that she looks forward to “occasionally wearing a sword in public”.
Dench was nominated by the clearly starstruck Deputy William Fraser and Gerald Bodmer, a liveryman from the Worshipful Company of Feltmakers. Fraser gushed: “In an exceptional career spanning more than 50 years, the breadth of Dame Judi’s roles has been astonishing: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, Iris Murdoch, Mother Courage, Lady Bracknell, M in the Bond films and her many Shakespearean roles, including a memorably chilling Lady Macbeth.”
THE FLYING TRADER
YOU’VE heard of the flying doctors, now meet flying trader Greg Secker, who will attempt to make money out of thin air on Friday as he hovers 10,000 feet above the City in a helicopter while trading live on the foreign exchange markets.
Trading from his laptop in the sky, every trade Secker makes will be posted live on the website of his training business Knowledge for Action to allow the City’s traders to keep up.
See www.theflyingtrader.org to co-pilot Friday’s mission – over to your conscience as to whether you join Secker in donating all the brokerage commissions generated by your firm on Friday to Barnardo’s and The Ubuntu Education Fund.
NEPTUNE TURNS NINE
THE STAGE was set for the ninth anniversary of Neptune Asset Management at the National Theatre, hosted by chief executive Robin Geffen with non-executive chairman Jonathan Punter and directors Richard Green, Robert Warner and Patrick Berton.
Neptune sponsors four productions a year as the National Theatre’s Cottesloe Partner, so the guests were given a behind-the-scenes tour, led by the NT’s chairman John Makinson, before taking in the views over the South Bank from the theatre’s rooftop venue The Deck.
The evening’s entertainment was provided by a skiffle band inspired by the NT’s current play One Man, Two Guvnors and later by The Gandinis, who gave a juggling performance from their “Glow” repertoire.