Tuesday, December 12

Brad

Brad visits London for four hours, and for the first time, on a stop-over traveling to Mount Kilimanjaro which he will climb. We have lunch at the British Museum, overlooking the 'reading room,' then visit the Elgin Marbles including, of course, the Rosetta Stone. Brad and I met in First Boston's Natural Resources and Energy Group (known simply as "N-R-G" to us faithfuls) back in August 1989. It was generally known to be the busiest in a busy firm, and the most miserable for its underlings. Our bond of friendship stems from a shared heritage of Berkeley, where Brad went to undergrad 'out-of-state' and the entrapment of investment banking. Today, Brad is a Managing Director at Countrywide, the 8th largest bank in the United States, where his team of 25 oversees $30 billion of assets. When not running money, Brad leads the good life in Santa Monica and still occasionally surfs the warm So-Cal Pacific's waves nearby his home.