Reza

I pick up Eitan from swimming ("37 laps" he tells me) while Sonnet with Madeleine and Lorena and Camilla at the museum showing the girls the behind-the-scenes+"tea and cake." This grey day starts, for me, at the Wolseley then coffee with my "personal banker" and lunch at Cecconi's. There I see Reza who ran HBOS and Halifax's joint investment business Insight until they were acquired last year by Bank of New York. Reza tells me at some moment in the negotiations he was not receiving the terms he needed and so BONY told him "to quit." So he did, taking the top four executives with him. 24 hours later he had his deal. Bad ass.

Reza Iranian and so of course following the country's elections and protest. He takes a personal interest in Neda Agha-Soltan, whose death in '09 broadcast over the Internet becoming a rallying point for the reformist opposition. Reza tells me that by chance "Neda" means "voice," or "divine message" in Persian and she is now "the voice of Iran." When he learned his alma mater Oxford's "Angel of Freedom" scholarship sponsored mostly by the English, he took it upon himself to raise money from the Iranian community in London and abroad, which he has done with his other alma mater Columbia U. - recall Columbia allowed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus then Lee Bollinger castigated Ahmadinejad in his preamble. Embarrassing for him, embarrassing for the university. Columba and Resa have raised substantial donations while thumbing their nose at the regime, which really Reza's motivation to begin with. Bad ass.

Reza and I also share a love for spirit and we discuss the methodologies behind our Holy Grail: the perfect martini. We agree the best cocktail bars Claridges, Dukes and the Laneborough's Library Bar which has the most lovely glasses, perfect for a yellow lemon rind.

"I openly declare that no one, apart from the government, killed Neda. Her killer can only be from the government."

--Ali Agha-Soltan from Iran