THEY used to say that you know you are getting older when policemen start looking younger.
My measure of the ageing process was always slightly different.
Going into business journalism in my late 20s, everyone I met and interviewed seemed much older than me.
I don’t know whether that gave me too much of a sense of deference but there must have been some element that these people were my elders and betters.
That’s why, having then arrived at the Yorkshire Post as business editor, I distinctly remember the first time I interviewed someone for the Business Tuesday back page profile that was younger than me.
That person was Daniel Gill, founder of a fledgling catering business called Dine and, then, better known as being the son of Michael Gill, renowned restaurateur and the man whose Pool Court brought a Michelin star to Leeds for the first time.
Ever since that interview I’ve bumped into Dan in a variety of locations.
Whether it was serving up Yorkshire-themed canapés on the Leeds yacht at the annual MIPIM property convention (in the days when a large chunk of the city’s property sector decamped to Cannes for three days every March) or catering a dinner at Leeds Town Hall, if you spotted Dan and the Dine team at an event you at least knew you would be very well fed.
It’s a pity the same quality control couldn’t sometimes be applied to fellow guests.
So it was great to catch up with Dan at a recent dinner he hosted at the Mansion in Roundhay Park in Leeds, where Dine is based.
The food, as always, wasn’t just tasty, but beautifully and creatively presented.
Whether Dine are serving up a sandwich lunch for six in a board meeting or catering a wedding for 500 guests, you get an impressive attention to detail and quality.
Given I live walking distance from the Mansion, I perhaps overdid Dan’s generosity when it came to the champagne and fine wines.
And as I strode purposefully home that evening I reflected that it is not just business people who are younger, now even football managers are younger than me.
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ACCOUNTANCY firm Baker Tilly announced yesterday that it is rebranding as RSM.
I can understand the logic of such a move – the firm will have the same brand across the world as it looks to reinforce its position as an adviser to middle market companies and an alternative to the ‘Big 4’.
But locally and nationally, jettisoning the Baker Tilly brand will create at the very least a short-term headache.
RSM International sounds like a business that makes pet food or artificial hips rather than the world’s sixth largest provider of tax services.
Law firms used to herald their regular and confusing change of names by issuing umbrellas with their new logo on.
I suspect it will take more than a few brollies for people to remember this name.
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HEARD the one about the farmer who went from strawberries to private jets?
I hadn’t until I went to the launch of Makin Air.
Chris Makin diversified the family farming business in Garforth, Leeds, into importing potatoes from Israel and then started growing strawberries to sell to Morrisons.
A true entrepreneur, he has bought the former RAF Church Fenton air base near Tadcaster, renamed it Leeds East Airport and is basing a Learjet, Agusta executive helicopter and new HondaJet there to deliver executive travel services to Yorkshire’s high net worths.
He also wants to launch a charter service to London City Airport to provide business people with an alternative to using the train to the capital.
Cue the local BBC TV news sending out a reporter to interview “concerned” residents who clearly believed the airfield is destined to be the next Leeds Bradford International Airport.
Makin Air may provide a daily service to London but I’m sure there was much more air traffic when Church Fenton was an RAF base.
The recent launch of Makin Air was an impressive affair. The aircraft were arranged in the hangar while a fleet of Bentley and Ginetta cars were lined up across the runway.
I knew it was an important do as the bloke running the event management company whizzed past me on a Segway wearing a headset.
I’ve already sorted my equipment for our next large scale event.
A Raleigh Grifter and Fisher Price walkie talkie set.
Have a great weekend.