PB Week: Cricket, Danger Mouse and Gordon Ramsay

On Thursday evening I tubed it across to the Swiss Re building where we were greeted by the PR team at Haggie Financial for some outdoor drinks at the bar at the bottom of the Swiss Re building. I can’t remember what the bar is called but is very nice, except the design of the building creates a rather windy environment around the building - although it was indeed a windy day, perhaps this is something that Norman Foster overlooked.

Cricket

On Saturday, I went along to the Oval anticipating a beautiful day full of many England wickets. Alas, I ended up in a local gastropub full of grown men dresses up as Danger Mouse sheltering from the pouring rain which lasted all day, oh dear – where is that summer? Luckily, England managed to win the game and Kevin Pietersen boldly went on to predict we are going to win the Ashes. Well, here’s hoping Kevin.

On Tuesday, I travelled by train to Guildford to interview Jeremy Cary, the managing director of Stackhouse Poland. A former senior Aon private client man, he has helped develop a mini-broker powerhouse – read all about it in September’s issue of PB.

Andy Homer

Afterwards I met Towergate’s Andy Homer for a spot of lunch near London Bridge. He appeared very aware of the need for Towergate to produce more organic growth and believes the recruitment of over 50 middle managers this year will reap dividends in years to come. As ever business is always about future growth and adapting to changing markets. Towergate will no doubt be changing once again or as Mr Cullum would say “reinventing” itself. Oh, and the rabbit and pig’s head on the menu were great too, although Mr Homer has requested I keep the identity of the restaurant a secret so he can be sure of booking a table or perhaps run into any insurer chief executives.

Mr Cullum would have approved of my restaurant appointment the next day: no less than Gordon Ramsay’s Maze restaurant at Grosvenor Square with the Allianz PR team and PB’s reporter Katherine Brandon. This place has fantastic steaks, and some nice touches such as your steak knife’s holder saying how your steak is cooked. Katherine was impressed as she commented: “This place knows how to cook a steak rare.” Another happy customer for Gordon Ramsay, who intriguingly has his father-in-law as chief executive of Gordon Ramsay Holdings - a fact I learned in the pub late last night - you do learn a new thing everyday.

STOP PRESS: Amlin have just acquired a minority investment in £60m broker TL Dallas following a similar investment in Miles Smith.

What happened in your week?

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