President Gorbachev ...PART TWO1 Sep 2022 12:03
At the office I was concerned that although the dinner was international ,
we were hosting it in English
and the main lecture was to be in English
Brilliant and humorous that he was, PG had quite limited English language...
so my concern was that, despite the HUGE draw that PG would provide, it might not go as well as I needed
Obviously, I couldn't try to keep PG as reserve ...so I had to decline
So I had NO main speaker and the invitations had to go out pronto
We then struck mega lucky...
We found the agent for Denis Healey...
He and I met in London and he was wonderful...
we agreed that he would do the gig
(His agent dealt with the fees point)
Our meeting was helped as I had read and much enjoyed a book written by his Wife...Edna Healey...
'The Portrait of a Private Bank'
The history of Coutts from 1692 to 1992
It had been a gift from my banker bloke...I am looking at it now
Denis proved a VERY big draw...
we had 100% acceptances to our dinner...it became a hot ticket
I had to extend the numbers by a few more!
I collected DH from Copenhagen Airport some days later
and he was incredibly charming again ...and possessed of a ferocious intellect...and enormous eyebrows!
We heldd the dinner and he totally stormed it...
Many of our guests stayed on late into the night...
DH had stories and experiences to knock your socks off
and kindly provided insight and perspective into global financial events...
not least of course when he had been Chancellor of the Exchequer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DH/I did a little sightseeing tour the next day...then I took him back to the airport
Microsoft was mighty ****ed
as we had hollowed out their gig with many top names coming to our event
SORRY!
I then did the biggest deal in banking that Oracle did up to that point ( still stands I think)...shares went up 3% on rumour in the WSJ/ Wall Street Journal
SORRY!
I did ' a few' more decent deals for other companies after that...
obvious high spot being with King Abdullah on live TV
I have specialised in the hydrocarbons sector for about 13 years I think
I am not engaged in a trivial way...I am quite anal retentive
I now have the great delight of jousting with various 'characters' on this BB
Regards
GRH
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