April 2022

WE’VE all been there. You walk into a business event or function and realise you don’t know anyone in the room. You grab a drink, gulp it down a bit too quickly as something to do, and wander about desperately looking for a familiar face or a stranger who might be open to chat. I’ve […]

I CAUGHT up with my old friend Richard (Dick) Matthews before Easter when he was in Leeds on business. Dick is an expert in foreign exchange and a veteran City trader with a wealth of stories from the days when City boys worked hard and played hard, drove Ferraris, drank Dom Perignon and enjoyed plenty

THE last event I organised and hosted before the pandemic was two years ago just weeks before the country went into lockdown. No one had at that point quite grasped what we were facing and I remember when one of the panellists turned up and wanted to bump elbows rather than shake hands it was

THE suit is dead. It was inevitable that sooner or later, the “experts” would predict that one of the many consequences of the pandemic would be the demise of that centuries old staple of a gentleman’s wardrobe. To be honest, they didn’t need a crystal ball to make this prediction given the rise of working

ONE of the people I met on my recent visit to the Houses of Parliament – other than an irate Conservative MP – was Vincent Hodder, the chief executive of Leeds Bradford Airport. Hodder is a burly, shaven-headed Australian with a no-nonsense straight-talking approach to business. With plenty of experience in the airline industry around