Non-executive

Banking / Non-executive — Comments Off
6
Jan 11

The rise of the entrepreneur

Goodbye to a great man

The Lorunser disease can only be caught in childhood. Those who have holidayed at the Hotel Lorunser in the Austrian ski resort of Zurs are forever fated to believe that skiing involves pain. A day cruising the pistes with stops for schnapps and some sun is a profanation of the word skiing. A day trudging up a mountain with skins pasted onto the underside of one’s skis, dripping with sweat and with the sound of heavy breathing the only accompaniment, is the orthodox way. Even better if it is in a white-out where one can’t even see the plodding fool in front.  Continue reading...

All Posts / Banking / Governance / Non-executive — Comments Off
15
Oct 10

Manning the barricades

Dealing with the conundrum of executive pay

Some of the simplest tasks can be fraught with danger. As I exit the shower, a Norfolk terrier gallops up the stairs to the bathroom. His aim? To ensure he is present as I put on cream. Mine? To avoid having it licked off my feet within ten seconds. As I hop around the room with cries of “No, Sasha!” I curse the day I skimped on puppy training.

But the potent desire for food, here and now and in whatever form, is integral to his genes.  Continue reading...

All Posts / Banking / Financial Services / FSA / Governance / Non-executive / Regulation — Comments Off
13
Jul 10

Why Spain won the World Cup

Regulatory overkill in banking

Soberbia can best be translated as a mixture of arrogance and pride. It is one of the seven deadly sins and prevalent in Spain (and in half Spaniards like me). Yet in the World Cup final, the Spanish team won on the back of humility.

It is admittedly natural to be humble when failure stares you in the face every four years – a football-mad nation that consistently lost on the international scene, bar the 2008 European Championship – but it is rather more difficult for those who are champions in their fields.  Continue reading...

Economic Stimulus / Financial Services / Governance / Non-executive — Comments Off
20
May 10

Why the euro will continue heading south

Investing in vice

Late one night, over a cigar and a 1958 Armagnac in the craftily hidden Garden Bar of the Lanesborough Hotel, I was told of a great investment opportunity. The Vice Fund, a mutual fund that had outperformed its benchmarks by “an order of magnitude.”

As a rule, investment tips exchanged in bars where billionaires lurk darkly should be ignored. But the appeal of a fund that invests in industries that are automatically excluded from corporate responsibility indices, ones that appeal to self-destruction and the destruction of others (smoking and arms manufacturers), as well as addiction (gaming and alcohol), tickled my fancy. Philip Morris is its biggest holding, along with Lockheed Martin and Carlsberg, among others.  Continue reading...

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →