Domain Buddy on Public Speaking and Performing

Leave a Comment / Domain Buddy Opinions and Comments, Public Speaking and Personal Performances /

Domain Buddy on Public Speaking and Performing

As an entrepeneur, there will be occasions where public speaking is necessary. In my case, this happened first in the RAF and then later on when I had to address sales teams.

Without doubt the most difficult public speaking experience for me was in 1994 when I talked to a room full of potential investors at Telehouse, first with the aim of persuading them to invest in my new telecoms business, and then again six months later with the different aim of supporting me in a Boardroom battle. 

Public speaking is not easy: firstly, there is no-one else on the stage or at the lectern or microphone, and one is aware that all the attention is directed towards you, and what you have to say, and how you say it. For the most part, audiences are friendly and want you to succeed, but this can be difficult to appreciate if you are new to Public Speaking. 

Some time in the ’70s or ’80s I had enrolled in a course designed to teach the basics of Public Speaking, and within the course, given by a professional speaker, I learnt several valuable lessons which were important later on in life. And naturally, during the course, one was expected to give a number of speeches on different subjects to other “students”.

Acting is most closely related to Public Speaking where a monologue is delivered – or put simply, there is only you to take the attention of the audience. When you are part of a group of actors involved in a scene together, or part of a musical band or group, it is a little easier on the nerves. Some people thrive on the attention of being the focus for an audience, but most, including myself, are more comfortable within a team and with colleagues close at hand!

Solo musical performances are also a challenge, particularly when – as in my case – it involved both singing and playing the guitar at one of the “open mics”. This leads to two possible disaster scenarios, which are either forgetting the lyrics, or forgetting the chord sequences and the musical score.  In my case, I have trouble remembering the lryics in just about any song, but as any musician will tell you, you just have to cover your mistake and carry on – which can be easier said than done!

Is there a Solution to Performance Nerves?

I think that performance nerves are natural and to be expected. As a performer, you should possibly be more worried if you do not have them!

To reduce performance nerves when acting, I always tried to make sure that I was as confident as possible before “taking to the stage”. This involved preparation – for example, with acting, I would make sure that I knew the entire play and would memorise the “lines” and go through the scenes in my head every night before sleeping. Only when I was confident that I knew the script “inside out ” could I then concentrate on other important facets of any Play, which would include “stage positioning” and the Director’s specific requirements for my role.

For any music performance, my experience is that there was nothing better than practice, even when that practice takes place shortly before any performance.

Alcohol And one final piece of advice I am happy to pass on – do not take refuge in alcohol in the mistaken belief that this will “help”. In my experience, it never did! Save the celebratory drink for after the performance!

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Nationwide Power Communications Ltd

Leave a Comment / 1991 to 1995, Business, Nationwide Power Communications Ltd 1993 to 1994 /

Nationwide Power Communications Ltd (NPC)

How I Started in Telecoms

In 1993/1994 I formed a new Telecoms company, using my investment knowledge and expertise, to raise approximately £400,000 from professional investors.

I presented the business to potential investors at one of the meeting rooms available in the large building known as Telehouse based in London’s new Docklands area.

Telehouse is a Data Centre specialising in providing secure and essential facilities for bespoke servers, such as internet access and power supply, with back up facilities to ensure  maximum “up time” or uninterrupted service – particularly important for a telecoms business. It also provided easy access to other telephone networks.

NPC Rationale – Business Opportunity with Phonecards

At this point in time, the telecoms market in the UK was dominated by two companies – the long established National Telecoms Operator, British Telecoms (BT) – and the relatively new Mercury Communications part of Cable and Wireless. BT had effectively had a monopoly for many years, and Mercury was formed to break that monopoly. However, both companies charged high prices for phonecalls, particularly to international destinations,

Many calls were made using a payphone or phonebox  which accepted coins (cash). However a new telecoms product had been developed some years earlier which was the Telephone Card, or phonecard, as it became widely known. Of particular interest to me was the prepaid phonecard using a remote memory system, which could be used in Payphones – or from any other telephone – by first dialling a Freephone or Toll-Free number. 

Requirements

In 1993, to be able to offer a phonecard service, there were three major requirements.

The first was to have our own “telephone exchange” or telephone “softswitch” and the most important feature of the “switch” – or computer software – would be the Billing system, which would ensure that the correct charge would be made for any call, and the credit balance on the prepaid phonecard carefully monitored. This crucial software solution was produced by Gideon Goldschmidt – see below for more info on Gideon.

The second requirement was to obtain the Toll-free numbers that would be promoted on each card, and would carry the incoming call to the server hosting our telephone softswitch, which would be situated at Telehouse.

The third requirement was to be able to connect the customer’s outbound call to the required destination, which meant that we needed agreements in place with Telecoms Companies (Carriers) who could provide such a service, either for national or international calls.

There were several businesses in the UK offering to produce or manufacture phonecard products – basically credit card sized plastic cards – which could then be branded, and carry the PIN (secret password under a “scratch-off” panel) together with the appropriate Freephone or Toll-Free access number.

The Unique Selling Point (USP) for the new business was that we could offer telephone calls far more cheaply than the established UK Telecommunication Networks – BT and Mercury – particularly calls to international destinations. 

Our potential UK market included Tourists, Students, small businesses, anyone who did not have a landline available at home or indeed anyone who needed to make cheaper international calls. Two of our early customers were the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, for whom we produced special telephone cards depicting stirke aircraft and the famous carrier the Ark Royal. This of course pre-dated by 30 years the Mobile Phone, and Communication Services via the Internet widely available today (2021).

The new company’s offices were on the top floor of 63 Duke Street London W1, the offices I had taken over following the demise of Noble Warren Investments Ltd.

How I raised the Necessary Venture Capital

In the early ’90s, to encourage Investors and to help new businesses attract the start up capital  or venture capital they needed,  the UK Government had developed the Business Expansion Scheme (BES) – later known as the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) .

For investment into new businesses that met the criteria, there were several important and generous tax advantages available to the investors, in particular, relief from Higher Rate Tax in the year the investment was made, and the removal of Capital Gains Tax on any subsequent sale.

I structured first Nationwide Power Communications Ltd, and some years later easy-dial Ltd, as BES companies. Another example of a startup business that later operated under the BES scheme was the RIverside Racquets Club.

Once I had decided on the structure of the new company, the bigger problem was one of where to find the potential investors and how to persuade them to become shareholders.

Matrix Securities Ltd

Matrix Securities Ltd was a company formed in 1986 and trading out of Vine Street in London. I believe the business was first drawn to my attention by my good friend Charles Sayer: it was of interest to me because it was linked to raising Venture Capital, and other ways of finding startup funding for small businesses, such as the new Telecoms business I had in mind, which was Nationwide Power Communications Ltd.

Matrix had accumulated lists of “professional investors” potentially interested in investing in “start-up” businesses where the risks of investing were obviously higher than average but conversely the potential rewards of owning shares in a business that went on to become successful were also higher. Potential investors on the Matrix lists were ideal prospects for me, particularly where the unique BES tax advantages would apply.

Matrix Securities Ltd offered an in-house service, which included mailing the names on their private contact lists with details of a new business: at the time, there was no email listing, which would have made the process a good deal simpler and less expensive!

I put together a Prospectus, detailing the company business plan and the members of the management team, which was proofed and agreed by Matrix, and this was mailed out to a suitable list of prospective investors in 1993/1994. The Prospectus contained a postal “reply slip” with a FREEPOST envelope to indicate further interest, and any responses were sent to me.

Management Team

Because my own expertise was at the time related to running financial businesses, I realised that a Team was needed with sufficient expertise in Telecoms to persuade investors that the new company had a chance of succeeding.

Gideon Goldschmidt – Technical Consultant
Gideon is a very talented software programmer and was the designer of the bespoke software that was used to provide the company’s unique telephone service. At the time he was involved with another entrpeneur, Adam Toop, who ran a business called Adam Phones, based in Chiswick, London, close to my home.
Gideon and his son – another talented software engineer – worked together as a team on various software projects.

Russell Mcanulla – Managing Director
Now apparently working in a small family business called Sheldon Reed, I have no recollection as to how we met. I see from Companies House records we were both directors in a company called Telefriend, but I have no idea why, or what it did. I remember meeting his wife Dianne and being invited to their home in Fleet. He obviously impressed me, because I offered him the job of Managing Director in my new company, only to be well and truly shafted after six months. 

Gary Sheppard – Director
Again I have no clear recollection of how I met Gary Sheppard, except that he was working with BT at the time and had the requisite experience in the Telecoms business. He may even have been one of my customers from Merchant Investors. Suffice to say that he was eminently fogettable, but fulfilled a role briefly as our Telecoms Director.

Ken Orrell – Sales Director
I cannot even now remember where and how I met our sales director: he was ex-army and a good salesman, and I offered him a job when he badly needed it. 

Jacqueline Peat – Office Manager
The one good thing to come out of NPC was Jackie Peat. Born to Jamaican parents and brought up in Lewisham London, at the time Jackie was unmarried with one daughter. With strong opinions, and an equally strong work ethic, she ran the office administration extremely well, and was very loyal. She later moved with me to the next telecoms company I formed which was easy-dial Ltd and carried on in office administration and customer relations. I owe her a great deal.

So What Went Wrong? Betrayed by "Little Shits"

After six months or so trading from 63 Duke Street, and starting to market the products and form the customer base for the new Company, Messrs Mcanulla Sheppard and Orell, the three musketeers – or “little shits” as I refer to them now – decided that the Company did not require my services, and they launched a Boardroom Coup

To be fair, Jackie Peat had tried to warn me on several occasions, but I had not heeded the warnings, and had assumed that there was not a serious problem. Of the three, I was the most disappointed in Ken Orrell, who seemed to me to be a decent bloke: they owed me a great deal, and all three were drawing generous consultancy fees from the new business.

I was of course very angry and disappointed: this was a major betrayal of trust. In truth, none of them were necessary to the Company, and I had only appointed them to strengthen our Board of Directors in the eyes of the Investors – our Shareholders. The only essential member of the Company was our technical Consultant, Gideon Goldshmidt, who developed and maintained our Telephone Exchange, or SoftSwitch. Unfortunately, they had “got” to Gideon, and I could not rely on him for support.

An EGM was called, with Telehouse as the venue, attended by a large number of Shareholders, who were faced with a simple choice – to either support myself or “the others”. I addressed the meeting, and warned them that, in my opinion, leaving the business in the hands of the little shits would have disastrous consequences for the Company and their investment. Unfortunatley, the Shareholders were persuaded otherwise, and in a vote, I was removed from the Board of Directors and effective control.

Some six months later, I was proved 100% correct: the company was milked dry of funds, and wound up, with Investors losing their money. As far as I know, there was no subsequent investigation of malpractice or negligence, but in my opinion, the little shits were no better than opportunistic thieves, and should have been prosecuted.

For me, this betrayal had serious consequences: apart from the damage to my own reputation, and losing my consultancy fee from NPC, the principal tenant at 63 Duke Street had disappeared overnight, which led directly to major difficulties with the Landlord and my subsequent Bankruptcy.

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63 Duke Street London Offices

Leave a Comment / 1991 to 1995, 63 Duke Street London W1 /

63 Duke Street London W1 1991 to 1994

63 Duke Street London W1

Foreword

Following the closure of Noble Warren Investments Ltd it was no longer viable for me financially to maintain the Offices at 50 Maddox Street, and so I terminated the lease as soon as was possible.

I wanted to stay in the same area of London with which I was familiar, and was not ready to leave the office environment. For me, working from home was a last resort and would not encourage entrepeneurial activity. It was important to have an office, where meetings with potential customers and colleagues could be held while I looked for the next business opportunity. And – more importantly – this was before the widespread availability of Broadband and high speed internet which would make running a business from home that much easier.

Through my previous connections, I discovered that the existing tenant and owner of the lease on 63 Duke Street, part of the portfolio of UK Property Company Land Securities Ltd, was looking to surrender the 15 year lease and was willing to pay a reverse premium.  This was a commercial property and it was also a good address in London’s West End within easy reach of the Central Line and Jubilee Line underground stations of Oxford Circus and Bond Street respectively.  The rent was reasonably low and the property in reasonable condition. There were two or three sub-tenants in the building at the time who I hoped would remain, and from whom I would collect rent which would contribute towards the amount payable in the lease agreement. I made the commercial decision to take over the lease – I had office furniture and equipment from Maddox Street that I could transfer to the new offices, and the Reverse Premium I received was enough to cover the payments due under the terms of the lease for a couple of years. 

As with the previous offices in Maddox Street, I started with the top floor of the building, which was essentially a house in the period style with 3 floors and a large basement used at the time for storage. The ground floor was not part of the lease, and was a fastfood restaurant. The first second and third floors consisted of one large room overlooking the street. There was no lift – again a slight drawback – and stairs connected the first and subsequent floors via a secure front door, with an intercom system for each floor. 

The top floor started as my personal office, and  was “open plan”, with an interesting feature which was a small roof garden accessible by ladder! As before, I used the Panasonic telephone system to interconnect between floors and make outside calls.

Close by were Portman Square and Manchester Square,  pleasant places to have a walk or relax, and Oxford Street, with Marks and Spencers and Selfridges, was two minutes on foot. 

Activities, Businesses and Personalities

Companies Formed

When I moved to 63 Duke Street in 1991, the first order of business was to find an alternative source of income which would replace Financial Services and to create new trading Companies as vehicles for any new enterprises.

I first formed Mayfair Mortgage Service Ltd in July 1991 as an umbrella company for any current or future property dealings or interests.

Marketing Companies.

The obvious place to start was in Sales and Marketing, and over the course of the next few years I formed three UK companies which were Marketing companies. I liked the word “Power” and used it as part of each of the names.

Powerpen Ltd. This company was for once not my brainchild, and was the first “power” company formed in March 1992. The products were different types of Pen from the most simple to the more expensive which were marketed by a form of MLM which encouraged the sale of the “powerpen”. The pens were despatched to customers from the offices.

Powerhouse Marketing Ltd. This company was formed in September 1992 with the intention of using  the name for any general marketing projects.

Power Communcations Ltd was also formed in September 1992 with the purpose of  focussing more on business linked to products or services related to telecoms and communications. 

New Companies, Officers and Duke Street Personalities.

All the Power Companies had Directors in common – namely myself, Paul Hesling, William Welch and Martin Hopper. I first met all three at 63 Duke Street, although I cannot remember the exact circumstances.

Paul Hesling was a tall “larger than life” character with a great sense of humour and personality, and I am certain that he would have been successful at GCP or Merchant Investors or any other sales oriented business. He worked very closely with best friend Will Welch, and they were both involved with various marketing schemes before I met them. Martin Hopper was a quieter more serious personality, and he also had experience in MLM Sales and Marketing. Powerpen was the first and last project that we were all actively involved with, and Paul’s idea, and unfortunately it was no more than modestly successful.

I have since tried to “track them down”, hoping that I would find them on LinkedIn or Facebook, but without success. The information available from Companies House does mention a Paul Philip Hesling as a Director for a company called Energy7 Ltd but I am not certain that this is the same Paul Hesling.

They were all talented marketing consultants, and – importantly for me – possessed the “entrepeneurial spirit”. They were also great company, and it was a pleasure for me to be able to focus on new ideas with them. They moved on to other marketing businesses as my attention turned to another opportunity – in the UK Telecommunications Market – but the parting was wholly amicable.

The next chapter in my entrepeneurial journey was about to start with Nationwide Power Communications Ltd

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Domain Buddy on Global Financial Scandals

Leave a Comment / Domain Buddy Opinions and Comments, Global Financial Scandals /

Financial Scandals and The Role of the Institutions.

Foreword

I would not say that the general public is gullible, but much of our money is tied up in “fund management” without our express knowledge or permission – for example our pension fund, or any credit balance we may have in our Bank Accounts. 

Bank Liquidity.

It is a well-known fact that any major Bank faced with a requirement to return all funds and/or deposits owned by customers would not be able to comply.
Why?
Because Banks and other financial institutions are run as profit making businesses – their shares are quoted on the relevant Stock Market. Success or failure depends on their Share price: and, more importantly, the huge salaries and bonuses paid to the people at the the top of the “tree” are also geared to Share Price, which in turn depends on “profits” and “performance”. And this inevitably encourages risk taking or, better still, insider trading – if they can get away with it – using the funds they control, which are of course provided by the public.

Assets

At any one time, the assets of any financial institution or Bank will be “tied up” in  loans and other “money making activities” such as hedge funds: some of these “assets” may well include dubious investments or unwise corporate lending or second mortgages on dodgy properties as happened recently in the USA. When the money making activities turn out to be too unwise or negligent, then the sort of Banking collapse witnessed in 2007/2008 occurs. 

Were there any Consequences for the Financial Scandals and  Banking Collapses?

Did the guilty parties in the Financial Institutions who really made and were responsible for these negligent decisions suffer financially or were they held to account?
NO 
There were of course some “scapegoats” or other “sacrificial lambs” who appeared before the public and Investigatory Committees to be castigated, but the real culprits continued in charge, fortunes and power intact. These people are smart, and they are surrounded by the best legal and accounting advice that (our) money can buy. Any money- making schemes that potentially have a risk of failure are set up in such a way that the bosses are fireproof, and the finger of blame can be pointed elsewhere.

Are some International and National Banks too big to be allowed allow to fail?

YES is the simple answer. 

Has Regulation Been Effective? Can Future Reglation be Effective?

No – Regulation and Regulators are simply Useless.
As an example, in the UK in 2012 as a direct result of their failure to prevent the financial scandals and resulting fallout, the Securities and Investment Board (SIB) and the FSA (Financial Services Authority) were axed, and regulatory control passed to the Bank of England. 
Did the incompetent regulators suffer in any way for their failure?
NO
In truth, the people who work for Government Regulators are just not competent enough to do the job: they are mostly career politicians, with no experience of how big business operates. To catch a wolf, it is not a good idea to employ a sheep: and – in an effort to be fair to them – it is difficult to regulate an industry which is too large and important to fail, and where that Industry has access to the best possible legal and financial advice.

So is there a Solution?

Probably not. The entire global financial system – for better or worse – holds the world economy together. One possibility is to remove Banks from the “equation” by altering their licences so that they are no longer Quoted Companies, and can only carry out the business of supplying normal banking facilities to their clientele.

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Domain Buddy on Insider Trading

Leave a Comment / Domain Buddy Opinions and Comments, Insider Trading /

Insider Trading Explained

My Definition.

Insider “trading” or Insider “dealing” is the possession of certain advance knowledge about an event not commonly available that allows one to unfairly or illegally profit from that event. It is often specifically associated with financial markets.

Examples

A well quoted example happened 200 years ago, when Rothschilds Bank had advance knowledge of the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo thanks to their investment in new technology – the Telegraph – and they proceeded to profit hugely from the rise in stock prices that occurred once Wellington’s victory was common knowledge.

Was this a crime, or just good business?

Another couple of examples of Insider Trading are featured in two of my favourite films from the 1980s – the comedy Trading Places and the drama Wall Street.

In “Trading Places” the bad guys are a couple of brothers running a Commodities Brokerage, and they rely on making their fortune by illlegally obtaining advance knowledge of production figures affecting Orange Juice Futures.

The film Wall Street is primarily about stock price manipulation, arising from “inside knowledge”.  Another great film is “A Good Year” with Russell Crowe. In the first few scenes of the film, Russell Crowe’s team of salesmen (or traders or dealers) demonstrate exactly how stock price manipulation works.

Of course, advance knowledge of events does not always only profit one party – for example today’s weather satellites can provide early warning of major storm systems that often saves thousands of lives. 

Insider Trading is prevalent in all industries and business in one form or another – sometimes in an obvious way and other times more surreptitiously. The Domain Name Industry as an example, is controlled by a number of large institutions. Where a valuable domain name is being sought by a large company, and one individual or business has prior knowledge of this, that domain name can be safely acquired in the knowledge that a guaranteed profit will arise.

Can Insider Trading Be Prevented?

Absolutely not: everyone wants to be “ahead of the game” especially in Business. Where it could apply in financial trading, techniques to protect firms and individuals from this potential claim have only become more and more sophisticated and so it is much harder to prove.

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Domain Buddy on Fund Management

Leave a Comment / Domain Buddy Opinions and Comments, Fund Management The Perfect Business /

Fund Management - The Perfect Business

Win Win


There is nothing complicated about the reasons for the existence of the Fund Management profession: it is really very simple. The more money an individual or a firm have under management, the more money they will make. And best of all, it is not their money. If things go wrong, the customer – normally the general public – takes the loss. It is a perfect risk free business for so-called fund management professionals.

How Institutions Profit From Fund Management.


As one simple example, consider a fund of £100 million (small by stock market standards) where the fund manager is tasked only with “beating the returns” of, or outperforming, one of the leading UK Stock Market Indices – for example the FTSE 100: in this simple example, the fund would not be allowed to invest in any financial derivatives or other instruments, international currency variations would not be an issue, and the only permitted trading would be in the blue chip Company Shares that make up the Index.

The first decision would be as to how much liquidity (univested cash) should be in the fund: after all, if the fund is 100% invested, and no buying or selling takes place, then the result should be identical to the FTSE annual growth – or fall – and so how can a management fee of 0.75 per cent or £750,000 be justified? Of course, the actual trading that takes place in any fund is a closely guarded secret, but the reality is that the “experienced” Fund Manager if he is to outperform the Index will need to “take a view” and alter the liquidity in the fund over a period, maybe for example through profit taking, or possibly for the avoidance of further losses on certain stocks.

Here is where it gets interesting. Every time stocks are traded, this involves a commission – the difference between the buy price and the sell price – also known as the “spread”. This commission – which can be anything from 0.25% and upwards – will be debited to the Fund, and of course the more active the Fund Manager, the greater the commissions generated to the advantage of the market makers concerned, who are aften linked with or associated with the Fund Manager. And it is not uncommon for such a fund to generate far more in dealing commission “earnings” than the basic management fee, which in this example is £750,000 annually.

Of course, if the Fund Manager gets the investment strategy right (or guesses correctly, however you may view the process) then everybody is “happy” – meaning that there are no apparent victims. 

Churning If however, the fund performs below expectations, the fund manager may be accused of “churning”  or “over trading” with the purpose of generating extra commission. This really is difficult to prove one way or another, as the Fund Manager may argue with some justification that he is “only doing his job” and each trade was a judgement call at the time.

Scratching the Surface But this example of how one simple fund can provide far higher returns than the “management fee” is only scratching the surface. In reality, funds under management are massive – hundreds of billions of pounds or dollars: think of mutual funds, insurance and pension funds. And all the “sophisticated” trading and financial instruments available in use – with  hedge funds for example.

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Jarretts Bond Management Ltd

Leave a Comment / 1977 to 1991, Business, Jarretts Bond Management Ltd 1978 to 1991 /

The Jarretts Rationale

In the late ’70s and ’80s UK Inflation was at record highs, and there were not many investments producing real returns i.e. a return more than the devaluation caused by inflation. For example, if one “invested” in a UK Building Society or Bank Deposit Account with a one year return of 8%, but inflation was at 15% for the year in question, the result was a guaranteed loss of 7% – not to mention any tax that may have been levied on the “profit”

An example of a national economy doing well at this time was Japan: another international growth area was the resurgent USA technology sector. Significant real growth could also be achieved in natural resources (oil) and other commodities, and some of the Unit Trust funds available provided opportunities for investment in those sectors, with a good chance of achieving “real” returns.

The new Unit Linked Insurance market gave policyholders the chance to link their funds to these higher performing economies and sectors via specific Unit Trusts, and this could be achieved not only with Single Premium Investment Bonds (minimum investment at the time of £250) but also for savings plans with premiums of only £10 per month.

When one added in other benefits – namely the Life Assurance Premium Tax Relief at 17.5 % and the taxfree status on the returns after 10 years – the 10 year Savings plans that we sold at Merchant Investors, and then through NWI, offered an attractive investment product to customers.

The customer could choose his own funds, and independently switch his investment as the premiums paid increased the value of his holdings. If the customer was not confident of managing his own money, or did not have the time to do so, and the sum involved was large enough, he could appoint a professional fund manager. However, “professional fund management” was not available for relatively small sums of money – for example amounts of less than £100,000 – and I recognised an opportunity to offer customers a management service for their unit linked portfolios. 

And so I formed Jarretts Bond Management Ltd (JBM) which started trading in 1978.

Company Formation 1978

The company started with five individuals – John Elderton (formerly at Merchant Investors) and working at the time with my brother, myself, Peter Coast and Alistair Binning. I have no idea what happened to Peter and Alistair in later life – I can only find a record of John, (see LinkedIn profile above) who I remember as a friendly and charming individual, and who describes himself now as a Financial Planning Professional: he appears to have had a successful  career in the same industry.

Peter and Alistair were also pleasant positive personalities, and at the time we each had a common  goal which was to provide a professional management service to our personal clients who had invested in Single Premium Investment Bonds and/or Unit Trusts.

Unfortnately, as with many projects involving independent thinking characters and entrepeneurs, the “partnership” did not last, and within six months or so, I was the sole director and controller of JBM, operating out of 50 Maddox Street. 

How Business Was Done

In my opinion, JBM offered an essential fund management service to customers. There was no “selling” at JBM: it was purely there as an optional extra – mainly for unit-linked clients of NWI – and if customers were happy to either manage their own plans or contracts, or stick with the initial fund chosen at the beginning of the contract, then this was fine.

However, in my opinion, it would have been verging on irresponsible for me not to have offered some form of ongoing management advice,  and this opinion was shared by many of NWIs customers. It was important for them to have the choice, and since fund valuations were transparent with daily unit prices published in the Financial Times and elsewhere, they could easily monitor the value of their unit holdings.

Professional Qualifications In brief, there were no professional qualifications available for this type of fund management. In 1978 JBM was not buying or selling stocks or Unit Trusts, which would have required the appropriate licence to operate as a stockbroker: it was not responsible for choosing the underlying securities or shareholdings within the various funds. At the beginning, and as the CEO of JBM, my task was to identify promising sectors available for our customers, and switch their holdings accordingly, and hope that the “professionals” actually running the funds or Unit Trusts did their job in choosing the right mix of underlying securities or shares in that sector. This was the route taken by Hargreaves Lansdown as a good example.

After some years, and with the experience gained in fund management, JBM successfully applied to become a Licensed Dealer in Securities, which gave me the ability to deal directly through registered stockbrokers and financial institutions.

Fees The annual management fee was the greater of £25 or 1% of the value of the “portfolio” – so unit-linked customers would normally have unit holdings to a minimum of £2500. Where savings plans were involved, for most customers it would take some years before the funds would reach a value of £2500, so most of the early JBM customers had single premium investment Bonds or a holding of Unit Trusts. JBM also later developed a fee based upon profit sharing, where an annual return or fund growth greater that an agreed amount would result in a larger fee if successful, or a nil fee where unsuccessful.

How Jarretts Developed

Initially, my time was mostly spent managing NWI, but by the early ’80s more and more time was devoted to following the financial press, monitoring investment trends globally, and reading journals like the Financial Times – which I would in any case monitor daily for the unit prices published which were linked to our modestly sized customer portfolios. It seemed to me that Fund Management should have been a logical business, and not one that required any great skill – there were plenty of underperforming Unit Trusts in all sectors, and no way of knowing which would do consistently well.

I started to study the stock markets, and examine how business was really done in the financial institutions that control the process. I began to understand what other instruments were available to stockbrokers and dealers – not only the sale and purchase of quoted company shares but also financial derivatives and traded options for just about anything – commodities, currency futures etc. I also began to understand how much money was being made by the intermediaries who made the decisons as to buying and selling.

Jarretts Own Funds

After some years, in approx 1985, I decided that I could do the job of managing unit linked funds better than most of the professionals I had contact with over the preceding 7 years, and with the help of Skandia Life, who performed the adminstrative and legal functions necessary, I set up three new Jarretts Single Premium Investment Bond Funds – Conservative, Realistic and Speculative. The Jarretts funds were valued by the Insurance Company and the prices were published weekly along with their other unit prices for other funds. I managed the funds as a Licensed Dealer, buying and selling through Stockbrokers and Unit Trust Managers. The holdings for each fund consisted of authorised stocks or Unit Trusts or other quoted funds: the Conservative Fund was primarily invested in the Property Sector and Fixed Interest securities, the Realistic Fund had more of an international flavour and the Speculative Fund was designed to profit from Special Situations, and the new trading instruments and derivatives available.

There was no “hard sell” with the Jarretts Funds – NWI clients could choose between no management service, a fixed annual fee of 1% for non Jarretts funds or an investment into the appropiate Jarretts Fund with no management fee: we obtained dealing commissions in the same way as other fund managers, which more than compensated for the absence of a management fee.

Our funds under management were modest – no more than a £1 million or so – and the Jarretts funds performed better than average over the remaining five or six years that we were allowed to trade. 

JBM Personalities

There were two individuals who were important to me as regards JBM, and for entirely different reasons.

Peter Jeffries

Peter was a Canadian in his ’50s or ’60s at the time I met him in about 1985, and he was running a fund called the Growth Strategies Fund, from a small London office, which appeared to be doing extremely well. Peter was very knowledgable about the Securities Market, and produced a weekly newsletter which I found very interesting.

In his newsletter, he described how one could make money with derivatives even when the price of an underlying security fell – his favourite vehicle was traded options. He also described at some length how he made his investment analysis – he was basically a chartist who used methods such as the Gann theories  to make his buying and selling decisions.

He was also an exponent of the major USA stocks that were driving the technical revolution of the time. I invested a modest amount of money from our Jarretts Speculative Fund into his venture, but – as my second wife Michele will confirm – I had my doubts about his integrity, and after a few months, I sold the holding at a profit, much to Peter’s annoyance. As it turned out, his fund was closed by the authorities some months later, and it transpired that client’s money had not been invested and the fund pricing was artificial to say the least. Stealing client’s money is a crime under any circumstances, even for a fund manager……

Richard Furber, Dean Witter Reynolds

As a Fund Manager, I had become very interested in the new investment vehicles available, and needed to find a Broker who could provide an international service. The obvious choice was an American company as the USA was both a market leader in trading derivatives and methods, and also could provide access to some of the most interesting growth stocks of the time, which were in the high tech industry.

Richard Furber was the management contact or Account Executive I worked with at Dean Witter Reynolds and for the next five years or so we developed both a business relationship and a friendship. Richard had a splendid house in the Surrey Stockbroker Belt and was married to Meg, an extremely nice girl and they had one daughter. Michele and I were often guests at their house which boasted a pool and a tennis court. In a previous life, Richard had been a seriously good tennis player, and was on the American College circuit, and was a member of the Queen’s Club. His appearance was very similar to the well known actor Ben Stiller .

When Jarretts was put out of business, we lost touch, but I note that he went on to do exceedingly well in his personal career at Dean Witter until 1998. He has kept a low public profile subsequently.

So What Went Wrong?

Unfortunately, because I was linked to Noble Warren Investments Ltd, when that company became a victim of the Regulator, it was inevitable that JBM would also fall foul of the “system”, and so it turned out. 

Jarretts Bond Management lost its License to Deal in Securities and was closed down within a matter of weeks in 1991. Another baby thrown out with the bathwater, and customers left without management advice for their investments, that I am sure they had appreciated.

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Noble Warren Investments Ltd

Leave a Comment / 1977 to 1991, Business, Noble Warren Investments Ltd 1977 to 1991 /

How Business Was Done

Choosing the Name.

I could have named my new company as Noble Warren Insurance Brokers, but this would have indicated some coverage of General Insurance products such as motor insurance or household insurance. I saw our growth area in the new unit-linked market, where the new “savings plans” and Single Premium Investment Bonds could offer real returns over inflation.   

IBRC

One of the first things I did was to register NWI as a member of the IBRC – Insurance Brokers Registration Council – set up to regulate Brokers via the new Insurance Brokers Regulation Act 1977 . It was important to me that the company was respected in the Industry, and offered a professional service to its customers.

Agencies

The next thing was to open Agency agreements with the leading providers of UK Insurance products, so that NWI could offer customers a full range of products that were suited to their particular needs – this was also known as Financial Planning. These products included but were not limited to Term Assurance, Health Insurance, Endowment Policies, Savings Plans, Single Premium Investment Bonds, Unit Trusts and Pension schemes. We would also offer assistance with mortgages through connections with Building Societies, particularly those applications that were not straightforward owing to the personal circumstances of the customer – e.g. the self-employed.

Not every Insurance Company had their own sales forces (direct sales): many ot the more established companies – for example Scottish Widows and Standard Life – relied upon selling their products through direct advertising, or business from independent Insurance Brokers. Each Insurance Company had a team of highly trained and professional in-house representatives, who would be responsible for new business connections and new Agencies in their area.

In the first year of trading, I set up multiple agencies with most of the leading and established Insurance Companies of the era – covering the complete range of Life Insurance products. As a guide, Term Assurance (pure life cover) and Private Health Insurance was a matter of “cheapest rates”, but With Profits Endowment Policies could be rated historically as the companies paying out the largest returns to policyholders over the chosen qualifying period – from 10 years to 25 years.
The unit-linked Insurance Industry – with Members such as Merchant Investors – was a new addition to, and a new concept in, the UK Insurance Market, and returns over a period would very much depend upon the underlying choice of fund (or Unit Trust). So the available range of funds would be critical, and this gave rise to another opportunity – the need for some Fund Management advice to be available should customers so choose.

Some of the Insurance Companies and Unit Trust Groups that NWI had agencies with included:

Where I have remembered the main character or principal contact at these various companies, I have included their names above. As can be seen by the links provided, many of these companies have since been acquired or merged with larger financial institutions.

Many of the above companies offered unit-linked products (plans linked to an underlying Unit Trust portfolio). A good example was NEL Brittannia, which was a joint venture company between the more conventional Insurer – National Employers Life – and the Unit Trust Group, Brittannia Arrow. Merchant Banks like Hambros and Hill Samuel were also involved in the new Unit-Linked industry.

Commission and Cashflow Considerations

Indemnity At Merchant Investors, and as a “direct salesman”, I had been used to the payment of Indemnity Commission – commission paid in advance on any successful sale. At NWI, this was not something I could (or wished to) offer to members of my team for all insurance products. Where the Insurance Company concerned offered indemnity terms, I accepted them, but it was not the most important criteria for us as an independent insurance broker. If the company was a unit-linked company, the number of funds available and the ability for our customers to switch between the funds was a more important requirement. Where premiums were paid annually, or for Single Premium products, commission was in any case paid within a few weeks.

Sales Team Commission Members of NWI received 80% of any “initial” commssions payable for any product: for monthly premiums, and where indemnity was not available, this was normally paid to NWI over the first 2 years of the life of the policy. Renewal commissions – which typically were 2 to 2.5% of the premium paid over the life of any policy – were kept by NWI and were later redirected to Warren Noble Investments Ltd, a company formed for this specific purpose.  

Client Account NWI had a client account, as do solicitors, for example. For Single Premium Insurance Bonds and, later, Unit Trust Investments, where there was an initial charge levied by the provider of between 3.5 and 5%, (normally known as the “spread”) the Client Account enabled us to pass on the net amount to the Provider concerned, allowing us to pay our consultant immediately.

Sales Training and Professionalism

Personal – ACII.  After only two or three years personal experience selling Merchant Investor Unit Linked products, I was well aware that there were large gaps in my own knowledge about insurance generally, and that if I was to run a successful insurance brokerage, I would need to correct that. There was an Industry organisation known as the Life Insurance Association (LIA): I did become a Fellow member (FLIA) but at the time the Association catered mainly for those involved in direct selling, and there were no recognised industry qualifications. The most professional Insurance qualification available was as an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (ACII). The ACII course was comprehensive, dealing with a large number of areas, including Risk, General Insurance and Contract Law, and I found it challenging and informative. I achieved ACII status in approx 1980

Consultant Sales Training I only accepted new members into NWI if they appeared to me to be ethical, had had some years experience in the Insurance Industry, and had received basic training. I was not in a postiton to – and neither did I want to – provide training courses. My consultants had the choice of working from the offices where they had a desk and telephone available, and use of the Boardroom for client meetings – or from home. I did not expect our consultants to qualify for an ACII as I had done, but I encouraged them to become members of the LIA, and I organised in-house advanced training on insurance investment and mortgage products. The best source of this training was from the Agency Inspectors or representatives from the Insurance Companies with whom NWI had agencies, and they were more than willing, as it gave them an opportunity to meet the team, and explain why their particular insurance products should be considered.

Product Suitability Because I wanted to protect NWI’s reputation, and because I knew how important it was to maintain the trust of the customer, I would monitor the majority of new business applications – particularly if the premiums seemed higher than the ordinary. If I had any doubts, I would speak with the consultant concerned, and make sure that the reasons given for the application to proceed were valid. It was better in my opinion to arrange a lower cost insurance product for a customer, which they could comfortably afford, rather than risk an early cancellation and the loss of that customer for good – and possibly a complaint. As a result, I do not remember ever receiving a complaint from a customer in the time that NWI was trading.

How NWI Obtained New Business and New Customers. The method of street canvassing we used at Merchant Investors had been outstandingly successful, but by the time I formed NWI, it was no longer a valid method, probably because of complaints received by the “authorities”: whether this was as a result of professional jealousy, or saturation of the area canvassed in the City of London, or just plain poor technique was a matter of conjecture. However, in my case I had accumulated some 200-300 customers who were loyal and happy to regard me as their financial advisor: my other NWI consultants had also accumulated a solid customer base, and for the most part, business was done by maintaining contact with each customer, reviewing his or her changing financial planning needs on a regular basis, and asking for referrals – i.e. friends or colleagues who may have also been interested in our service. “Cold Calling” was not permitted.
NWI did also run from time to time a small advertising progamme, in some magazines and journals, but this was only for special products. One campaign I remember in particular was in 1990 when Interest Rates were at record highs, and a popular product produced by some of the more innovative companies was the One Year Guaranteed Income Bond: for example, Liberty Life produced such a product, guaranteeing a return of 19.1 per cent.

UK Regulation – IFA In 1988 the UK Government enacted legislation to distinguish between financial advisers working independently for their clients, and those who were in reality representing one Insurance Company. Rather naively as it turned out, I welcomed the new regime, as I had long thought that clients would be better served by an independent firm – or Insurance Broker – and this was one of the main reasons why I had formed NWI . The new required “status” of Independent Financial Advisor did not seem to me to be a problem because most of the requirements – such as “fact finds” for new clients – were already in place and part of the NWI culture.

NWI Personalities and Key Members

When NWI started in 1977, we had very few consultants: the team grew slowly over a number of years. However, there were three personalities who were either special to me, or were influential.

Peter Clarke Dec’d: Peter came with me from Merchant Investors: he was at the time in his ’50s, “old school” and ex-army, overweight and with a moustache, and smoked incessantly, In fact I think it was his bad influence that led to me smoking cigars in the office, even first thing in the morning. He was a “lovable rogue” and very partial to alcohol and the good life, which was unfortunate for his long suffering and faithful wife, Pam: but he was charming and always positive no matter what his financial circumstances were – and they were often dire. I helped him as much as I could, and he was a good friend.

Simon Brewer: I was researching the internet to see if I could track down Simon, but true to form, the only reference I could find was a report on his society wedding in 2011 to a very tall girl called Rebecca Steels. I would never describe Simon as a friend, more as a colleague, but his involvement at NWI was important as he did bring in a lot of business. A few years younger than myself and educated at Eton, he was permanently based in London’s Fulham (where else, my dear?). I was always aware that he did not consider me as a social equal, but NWI was useful to him as an acceptable way of making a living by persuading his rich friends to make investments: in this regard, he reminded me of Rai Hamilton, formerly at Merchant Investors.  Having said that, I was invited to tea at Claridges on one occasion to meet his mother – a charming lady. Like Peter Clarke, Simon was a bad influence on me, and we often disappeared together to Morton’s or one of the other clubs or local winebars: in fact, it was because of these excursions from the office that I invested in one of the first commercially available mobile phones (it was a Panasonic and cost £1700 and was extremely heavy) so that I could keep a check on unit prices and Julia – my PA – could call me with any important message, 

Julia: My Personal Assistant and married to Chris, one of our consultants, and to my lasting regret, I cannot remember her surname. She ran the Maddox Street office and had responsibility for most of the administration, which she carried out brilliantly. Most importantly she “had my back” – I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for her long-term professionalism and loyalty.

Hargreaves Landsown - A Success Story

Hargreaves Lansdowne is a company whose progress I have monitored for many years, and with some envy.

The two entrepeneurs were based in Bristol and their business started modestly from a bedroom a few years after NWI in 1981. They followed the same rationale as I did, with the same objective of providing “information to clients on unit trusts and tax planning matters”

They avoided the problems NWI faced in 1991 and have become hugely successful, with a quotation on the London Stock Exchange in 2007. They obviously “did it right”, and almost certainly had better advice and business funding than I did. All credit to them, but it does show what was possible and what could have been achieved without the draconian intervention of the Financial Regulators.

So What Went Wrong?

The short answer is that some 30 years on, I still do not know for sure.

We were closed down following the appropriate notice and an unsuccessful Tribunal Hearing with the Securities and Investment Board (SIB), who from 1985 had taken over Regulatory duties for Financial Services in the UK.

Background

Some weeks or months before this “bombshell” we had had what I had thought was a routine visit or inspection at the 50 Maddox Street offices, with a team of five or six individuals representing the SIB: I was totally confident that NWI would come through without a problem. After all, in my opinion and as can be seen from the previous description of how NWI operated, together with the fact that we had no customer complaints and that NWI provided an independent and professional service to our clients as required by the new “regime”, this should have been enough to have guaranteed our survival.
The inspection took two or three days and seemed to go well – although Julia (my PA and in charge of office administration) did mention that the SIB were somewhat arrogant and heavy-handed, and were not too familiar with insurance products, particularly in the unit-linked sector. Apparently the leader of the SIB “team” was employed by a Buiding Society only six months previously.
As a direct result of this visit, and much to my surprise and shock, the SIB sent correspondence indicating that NWI would not be granted continuing status as an IFA (Independent Financial Advisor)

SIB Tribunal Hearing

My only appeal process was via a Tribunal Hearing, which I duly applied for: we were the first company to appear before such a Tribunal, which was conducted as a quasi Court Hearing with members of the SIB hierarchy sitting in judgement. As I recall, there were no independent adjudicators and no further right of Appeal.

We were represented by Christopher Monckton after Simon Brewer’s specific recommendation to me. After both sides had produced whatever evidence they had, we lost the Appeal, and as far as I was concerned the “baby was thrown out with the bathwater“.

The Mistakes I Made

My first mistake was that I should not have been so confident in our passing the SIB inspection, and should have paid more attention to the paperwork and procedures that these regulatory bodies or bureaucrats are so fond of inflicting. Our loss at the Tribunal was apparently down to some failures in this area, rather than anything more serious such as misleading customers.

The second mistake that I made was in not appreciating that since our Tribunal Hearing was the first public occasion to judge the effectiveness or otherwise of the new SIB regime, they were not going to want to lose.

The third and major mistake I made was in appointing Christopher Monckton: I now know his background was in journalism, and he was a “political advisor” to the Conservative Party. He was not a lawyer and had no previous experience in similar matters. I should not have trusted Simon Bewer’s judgement and should have appointed “proper counsel”. Our defence was shambolic and pretty much non-existent – for example, we could have produced many customers as character witnesses, or produced written evidence. We could have called many of the Insurance Companies with whom we had agencies to provide confirmation of our independence and professionalism. None of this was done, but I am sure he appreciated the £10,000 up front fee.

Final Word
I do often wonder if NWI had been unfairly targeted, or competitors were jealous, or perhaps I had been too vocal in the local industry Press. We were a small company doing a professional job, with financial planning for our customers: we were not a Barlow Clowes or a Norton Warburg. However, the damage was done, the business destroyed, our staff laid off, our customers were left without advisers, and I was deprived of my livelihood. So much for Regulators.

Note: The SIB became the FSA (Financial Services Authority) in 2001, until approx 2012 when closed down by the UK Government due to its total failure in preventing the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis.  

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50 Maddox Street London Offices

Leave a Comment / 1977 to 1991, 50 Maddox Street London W1, Business /
50 Maddox Street

Choosing our Offices

After some searching, I  found a suitable Headquarters for my new Insurance Brokerage. This was at 50 Maddox Street and was a commercial property owned by the Corporation of London: it was a good address in London’s West End within easy reach of the Central Line and Jubilee Line underground stations of Oxford Circus and Bond Street respectively.  The rent was reasonably low and the property in reasonable condition.

I started with the top floor of the building, which was essentially a house in the period style with 5 floors and a basement, each floor consisting of one large room overlooking the street and one other smaller room at the back – which had no view as such! There was no lift – a slight drawback – and stairs connected the first and subsequent floors via a secure front door, with an intercom system for each floor. When I  started, there were other tenants on the first three floors, and the ground floor (with street frontage) and basement was occupied by an upmarket Hair Stylist called Carvers: I see that the business name with owner Vivienne Baum remains to this day, but Carvers 2020 has a different clientele.

The small room on the top floor became my personal office, and the larger room was “open plan” for my small team at the time and a waiting room area for customers. As the business grew, I gradually took over all the upper floors, with our admin staff and Reception Area and Boardroom on the first floor, and the second and third floors available for the expanding sales team. We used a Panasonic telephone system to interconnect between floors and make outside calls.

Close by were Hanover Square Berkeley Square and Grosvenor Square,  pleasant places to have a walk or relax, and Bond Street and Oxford Street were five minutes on foot. Directly opposite our offices was an Italian Restaurant (unimaginatively) called the “57” but it was an excellent place to have lunch – particularly the menu item known as stuffed chicken with garlic butter , which meant that “after lunch” meetings could be hazardous for other attendees!

At full strength, Noble Warren Investments Ltd had a staff on P.A.Y.E. of three girls – one of whom was also my PA – and a sales team of 20 to 30 sales “commission only” consultants.

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Special Friends and Special People

Leave a Comment / Special Friends and Special People /

Foreword - An Apology

This is dedicated to the special friends and relatives in my life, who have either kept in touch or tried to keep in touch with me over the last 10 years or so, when I have been going through a bit of a personal crisis.

Looking back, the start of this “personal crisis” coincided with the beginnings of the break-up of my marriage to Michele, and it is always difficult to explain to mutual friends why this happened. I did not want to put anyone in the awkward position of “taking sides”. Because I was the one to initiate the divorce, and also the one to leave the UK for a new life in Crete, it did not seem right to me to give good friends this dilema, and so – rightly or wrongly – I avoided keeping in contact.

For this, please accept my sincere apologies. 

Chris and Jenny Efstratiou

I have known Chris (CJ) and Jenny from our earliest days together at Merchant Investors in 1974. They are my oldest friends and have been incredibly generous over many years to me and my family. They have three children, Melissa, Marcus and Rowena, and I was honoured to be asked to become Godfather to Marcus (probaly the worst Godfather in history): I have followed the progress of Marcus via LinkedIn and am proud to see that he is a very successful copywriter – despite receiving no assistance from me!

Chris qualified as a Chartered Accountant, but in true entrepeneurial fashion, he eschewed this in favour of making his own way in life. Originally from East London, and a Greek Cypriot, his background was about as different to Jenny as it could possibly be!

Jenny is a tall and very attractive girl, whose parents were what you might call upper class. Some branch of her Scottish family tree still owns an ancestral castle, linked to the Hay Clan. Jenny spent a number of years in Kenya, when her father was posted abroad, and so we had something in common, with our childhood spent in Africa.

I do not know the full story of how they met, but as teenagers they were dance partners, and became incredibly successful together – ranking very highly in the UK National Amateur Ballroom championships.

At Merchant Investors, Chris – with Jenny’s help – was probably the most successful salesman we had, and went on to run his own Insurance operation, Berkeley  Walbrook, in the late ’70s.
Chris was a gifted businessman, and while I spent money on a flashy Etype, he and Jenny “made do” with a Mercedes 450SL and bought a London flat at Westbourne Terrace, London W2 – their first property. Getting started early on the property ladder was probably the best move they could have made.

As their business continued to do well, in the early ’80s they bought a superb new holiday apartment in Puerto Banus, near Marbella Spain, and they were most generous hosts when Michele and I visited them.

Their next property move was a big financial stretch to buy what has been their family home for many years – a beautiful Manor House with large grounds at Stadhampton, in Oxfordshire. Again, my family visited often, sometimes staying overnight, and enjoying their hospitality on so many occasions. 

At about the same time as the insurance industry became more difficult to work in, because of government regulation, Chris turned his attention to Commercial Property, using his business skills to leverage funds. Starting with retail properties in Oxford, he later turned his attention to Wanganui in New Zealand, where Jenny’s parents had retired.

Jenny also had her own business interests, and together they have always made a formidable but “low profile” team.

Researching Google for anything about CJ is not very productive but I was amused to read an article from a local paper in New Zealand in 2011. Like me, Chris and Jenny have an instinctive dislike for the Press, and any form of publicity which is business related.

But to their friends, they are most generous, and two of the nicest people you could meet. I love them both!

Tony and Nona Haslam

I first met Tony in about 1985 when we joined the Riverside Club. 

Tony was the Club Manager, and knew the Beckwith Brothers personally: they could not in my opinion have made a better choice, because Tony ran a “very happy ship” and made the Riverside Club a special place.

Tony is ex-army, and utterly charming: if you give him half a chance, he will rattle off half a dozen hilarious stories about his time in the Regiment. A natural comedian and raconteur, he is the “life and soul of the party” – but perfectly capable of switching into “serious” mode when required.

Nona is also tremendous fun and was previously a soloist at the Royal Festival Ballet. She continued to  maintain her love of dance  by volunteering to work with the Royal Ballet, and Michele and I were lucky enough to attend some performances together at Covent Garden. However when she first met Michele and I as new Riverside Club Members, she was unhappily married. 

It soon became apparent to us that there was a definite attraction between Tony and Nona – I believe Tony was also going through a divorce at the time, made more awkward because of the children involved. To cut a long but romantic story short, we became great friends and socialised together, and were honoured to be witnesses at their Registry Office marriage some 30 years ago.

Unluckily for all of us at The Riverside Club, Tony resigned circa 1994 after “falling out” with the Board: however the Haslams continued to lived locally, and they remained the closest of friends for many years, even to the extent of regularly supporting our various amateur dramatic events! 

The O'Connor Family

On my father’s side of the family were two cousins, Shirley and Betty, both lovely people. Shirley married Tom O’Connor, who was a successful architect living in Essex, and they set up home first in Southend. As Tom’s career progressed, they then moved to a large house in Hockley, Essex with about 10 acres of ground, where they brought up their family of four daughters, all very attractive and with different personalities.

I first met them when I was 12 and about to start at King’s Canterbury – my parents organised a trip to the UK from Uganda to be with me and organise things like the school uniform etc. – and we visited the O’Connor family at their home in Southend.

I remember being totally stunned by Carol, the oldest daughter who was 16 at the time, beautiful vivacious and blond: if I remember correctly, she had a bit of a reputation as a “wild child”, and of course it was 1960, when “flower power and revolution” was in the air! The second daughter was Patsy, who went on to become an actress, the third was Dianne – about my age – and the youngest was Maralyn.

When I started at Cranwell, and had my own transport, in the early ’70s, my parents were living many miles away near Bristol, and I was invited on several occasions to the O’Connors home in Hockley, which became for me a “second home”. I loved going there. Tom was tall and extremely intelligent, but had five women in the house to “contend with”: he would talk extremely quickly and switch subjects at a moment’s notice, which could be disconcerting – until I got used to it. Shirley was very special – a gentle person, nothing phased her and she had a smile all the time.

By this time, Carol was married to Philip – a local Chartered Surveyor and amateur rugby player and  all-round good bloke – and Patsy was busy in London doing theatrical things. So the two girls I came to know the best were Dianne and Maralyn: Dianne was terrific with a great sense of humour and a gift for languages, and Maralyn was for most of this period still at school. For me, it was like having two sisters, and I very much appreciated the welcome I received whenever I visited. And it was at the O’Connors house that I met Rosie, my first wife.

All the girls later married extremely nice and interesting “guys” with different careers, and had families together. Tom and Shirley moved to Mere in Wiltshire in the late ’80s – I think – and I seem to remember that I was invited to give a speech there at Maralyn’s wedding to Jeff Levett.

Patsy married Peter, a talented artist: Dianne married Keith who was/is in agriculture and farming, and I visited them several times at their home in Winchester. The couple I got to know best were Jeff and Maralyn, who moved to Camberley in Surrey, and we socialised together on many occasions over many years, latterly with my second wife Michele. They have two children – Amy (who is a talented singer) and Patrick.

David Day

I first met David about 20 years ago – he was one of the remarkable group of actors in the Barnes Community Players (BCP): he had also attended the Richmond Adult Community College, where he was involved with courses designed to help professional singers.

Happily married to Bridget for some 50 years, an “out and out” Labour Party supporter and former fireman (London Fire Brigade), with an interest in sailing, cooking and music of all types, David is one of the nicest people you could meet, with a great sense of humour and extremely modest dispositon.

Apart from being a fine actor – our performance together as King and Prime Minister respectively in one of the BCP Pantomimes springs to mind – he is a very  talented singer, and was very active on the SW London “pub” circuit as well as in our local Musical Theatre venues. He is also a fine amateur painter!

Always positive, he encouraged my lesser talents and we did perform together on several occasions at the same venues – usually a favourite pub in the Barnes or Chiswick area, or sometimes at our “open mic”

David is the only friend who has visited us in Crete, and therefore knows more about my new life than most. Some years ago, he moved home from Barnes in London, to Ashford in Kent, where he is involved in local “amdram” and jazz clubs – and still singing. He is very active on Facebook, and we remain very much in touch.

Charles Geoffrey Arnold Sayer

Charlie or (CGAS) is a complex character, and has been part of my business and social life for longer than anyone else. In his current LinkedIn profile he describes himself as a Direct Marketing Specialist

I first met Charles in the ’70s when I formed Noble Warren Investments – he was a potential addition to my sales team, but never committed to joining me. 20 years later, he supported me in the formation of the various telecom companies I founded, for which I am very grateful.

Charles is a bit of a “butterfly”, by which I mean he is happier flitting from project to project without being too involved in the hard graft, which most entrepeneurs need to go through before becoming successful. He sees himself as a “business angel”, identifying interesting projects and then putting the right people together to “make it happen”. CGAS was luckier than most of us because there was money in the family, and he was never going to have to struggle financially: he was also very cautious when it came to spending his own money or making investments.

I met both his parents on several occasions, and they were charming: Charlie’s father was in International Banking and had returned to London after many years living in Hong Kong, with a very successful career with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. Charles was brought up in HongKong, and so we shared the experience of a former colonial life in childhood. I did detect a little family disappointment that Charles had not followed in his father’s footsteps, and did not seem to “have a proper job”!

When I moved to my Thames Village property in 1987, although I loved the location, it was a small flat on the ground floor. I had plans to also acquire the upper floor flat if it ever became available which would then have made one property of a decent size. Sure enough, after 10 years or so, it became available but I was in no position to afford to buy it at the time, and so I persuaded Charles to purchase the flat on the understanding that I would have an option to buy it from him in the future. Charles was at the time looking for a permanent home, and did not need much persuading. And so we became neighbours and I see that he is still in residence there.

I remember two “charlie inspired” business ideas that I was involved with when my own business was in a state of flux. The first involved Life Settlements, and a friend of his called Ian Dike who was running an insurance business in Hampshire: I have covered this elsewhere in the Blog, but it did involve a joint trip to Fort Myers in Florida. The second involved a 10 day trip to Sri Lanka where we stayed near Colombo in a very pleasant hotel, formerly the Governor’s Residence. Ostensibly this trip was to investigate the possibiltiy of setting up an import business for items of well known branded clothing/sportswear from Sri Lanka factories, where labour costs were low, and we did visit a few of the factiories in the local area. In reality, I think Charlie hoped to develop his relationship with the attractive Sri Lankan girl who had suggested the idea to him.

As neighbours, we were both members of the Riverside Club and played a fair amount of social tennis together. Charles became a director of and modest shareholder in easy-dial Ltd, and shared our offices in Richmond for some years. Although we have not been in touch for some time now, I will always remember our shared penchant for a nice pub lunch – for example at the Bull’s Head or Annie’s in Chiswick  – with a pleasant bottle of wine or two.

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