The Managing Director

David at his post.

David has been busy since his wedding : a daughter, the wonderfully named Zazzie, and Obscura, pictured, which has occupied his interest for five-years. The company founded in 2000 to project large-scale images on to things (think the Union Jack covering Buckingham Palace during the Golden Jubilee) ; today it counts many of the world's largest brands as customers including Google and Coca Cola.  There are numerous strategies to exploit the IP and David makes sure everything to a plan : a hard job for any company but perhaps more with the intersection of creative, technology and business development, each with its own demands.

Then there is venture capital to confuse everything but what high-growth company can avoid its temptation?  Silicon Valley is the modern day gold mine and my generation its 49ers.  VC offers a quick hit , validating one's ego, soothing cash-flow and pre-loading valuation. In return, it takes its pound of flesh in ownership. For the right type of business , ie, fast tracking towards some exit, it works fine. For others : beware. I learned this one the hard way.

Obscura Digital

Jasper in San Francisco.

I have breakfast with him and David in the East Bay before heading to their offices : Obscura Digital, which "develops technology-driven creative solutions for Fortune 500 companies and leading global companies" (the website tells me).  It is a cool place, too : intelligent people with thick glasses and shaggy haircuts; perfectly uncoordinated outfits that are just so. There is a vibe of productivity and better: it just feels like a good place to be.


The offices are swe-et, too, designed by IwamotoScott Archtecture.  Here is what they say:  "The new space, a renovated 1940s steel warehouse, has a surface of 36,000 sqf divided on three levels which blends raw materials  such as wood and exposed concrete, technology, and minimalist chic. The office features a geodesic dome, a projection theatre, see through walls, laser-cut modular bookshelves and of course ball chairs. A space that greatly balances creativity and wilderness within a proper work environment.”

Wingspan

The wing of a 747 Jumbo is 5,600 square feet, an area large enough to hold 45 cars. It still amazes me that I can board a giant tube, filled with rocket fuel and 400 people, and arrive on the other side of the planet inside a day. And not think twice about it.

And so here is my first view of the Bay Area following ten hours in a plane.  Yep, San Mateo. San Francisco is 20km away and Berkeley yet further, across the Bay Bridge (which is being rebuilt from Treasure Island to Oakland at a cost of $5 B and counting). I learn that the Intl Terminal is the largest building in the world built on base isolators to protect against earthquakes. Let's hope it works when the time comes.

As for the long-haul itself, I could really do without but , hey, this a price I pay, living in London, away from my beloved Northern California.  To make the flight durable, I stretch often and it amazes me that most of my compatriots glued to their seats, unmoving, for the duration. This cannot be healthy, and indeed I have a friend who developed deep-vein thrombosis from air-travel which nearly killed him.

In London, Sonnet attends London Fashion Week and kids back to school following half-term break.

Thomas Tait

Thomas Tait shows today at Liverpool St in an empty building (photograph by Valerio Mazennatti). Yep, London Fashion is 'on' and Sonnet hands our au pair tx to three shows : Tait, Mark Fast and Mario Schwab , all in the newly trendy East End. Sonnet will see cat-walks for Erdem, Mary Katrantsou and Paul Smith tomorrow.

Tait a recent graduate of Central Saint Martins and in business for a few seasons. Sonnet, sitting on the coach with Madeleine watching Harry Potter, tells me: "He is young and up-and-coming" and "one of the best of the new designers." From what I can tell, Tait's work sensible, without frilly design - and practical. His past collections mix sport and couture.  He presents pleated trousers, for instance, worn with smooth-fitting, super-light leather motorcycle jackets that have a minimum of seams, and loose cotton sports shorts and dresses, including an ultra-sexy black dress with a racer-back. Tait asked Nike to make special sneakers for the outfit. Inspired, Dude.

Eitan to a football "friendly" against Walton marred only by traffic (accident+road construction=35 minutes late).  The boys play 11-a-side for the first-time : Eitan says "it didn't effect my game much because we were on a bigger pitch".  Elm Grove wins, 4-3. I take Rusty for a run along a beautiful stretch of the Thames near Hampton Court Palace.

Sunday Words

Me: "It's hard being a kid."
Madeleine: "Yeah."
Me: "I remember being worried about taking exams and doing well.  My parents had pretty high expectations for me and Auntie Katie. Especially Moe."
Madeleine: "You have definitely inherited that."
Me: "What do you think of our family?"
Madeleine: "It's OK."
Me: "What could we do better?"
Madeleine: "Less shouting and more fun."
Me: "Is that my role - the shouting bit?"
Madeleine: "Shouting, driving and eating."
Me: "Good to know. Anything else?"
Madeleine: "Swearing, rib-crushing hugs, and rough smooches. Because of your beard."

Me: "Are you happy?"
Madeleine: "Yeah, most of the time."
Me: "Do you think I am happy?"
Madeleine: "Yes."
Me: "How do you know?"
Madeleine: "Because you are singing all the time. Like right now."
Me: "Yes, you are right, you know."

Eitan: "Dad, I just realised that I have never heard your say 'loo' before."
Me: "Oh?"
Eitan: "Just say it. 'Loo'."
Me: "I am not going to say it."
Eitan: "Just say it. Say 'loo' Dad. Please say it."
Me: "Cut it out."
Eitan: "Mom, say 'loo'."
Sonnet: "Loo."
Eitan: "See, Dad? Just say 'loo'. Say it. Come on."
Me: "Leave me alone."
Eitan: "Will you please say it? Please?"
Me: "You know that scene in the Simpsons where Homer strangles Bart by the neck?"
Eitan:  "Yeah."
Me: "Keep. It. Up."

Fruit (Plate)

Madeleine's cupcakes (fancy ornaments pinched from the drinks cupboard - my contribution) .

Lunch.
Sonnet: "Everybody has to have some fruit."
Eitan: "I am making myself a fruit plate."
Madeleine: "You don't even like fruit plates, Eitan."
Eitan: "Well, I like a fruit plate more than just fruit."
Me: "Yeah, Madeleine, Eitan likes a fruit plate more than just fruit."
Madeleine: "He only says that because you are here."
Eitan: "I like a fruit plate and I never said anything about just fruit."
Madeleine: "You've never liked a fruit plate."
Eitan: "I love a fruit plate. You just don't know anything."
Me: "What the hell are we talking about here?"
Eitan: "You don't have to swear, Dad."
Madeleine: "Yeah, really, Dad."

Schiphol

Here I mix it up with my fellow travelers. It's like Day of the Dead or something. The Amsterdam Airport services 45 million passengers/ year, 4th busiest in l'Europe.

I am here for lunch (Madeleine: "Just lunch? Wo-o-o") with AlpInvest who manage €50 billion of other people's money with a lot of it invested in private equity (a group of slick-haired men huddle in the reception tweedling on their Blackberrys).  Over scallops and skate wing we discuss various points of interest : France, Italy, management fees, returns and etc. Usual stuff.

ING House

A weird building if ever there was one - pictured - located in Amsterdam and the headquarters of the ING Group, the largest banking/financial services & insurance conglomerate in the world by revenue with gross receipts exceeding €54 billion in 2010 (Fortune). As my meeting across the street, I ask the receptionist what she thinks ? "It looks like a ship" she says. And so it does. Me, I think : AT-AT walkers used by the the Galactic Empire against the Rebel Alliance's Echo Base.

The postmodern design by Amsterdam architects Meyer and Van Schooten opened in 2003. The building's 16 angled steel legs are independent of each other, resting on pins in large concrete blocks in the ground, a technique also found in bridge construction. On this platform the floors are built. The belly of the building on the second floor is actually at the height of the highway, as the ground is lower than the highway. From the third floor one has a view of the highway.

Next door there is a forest and, following lunch, I go for a run unaware how close I am to the airport. A jumbo flies overhead , landing gear out, and I think : "Holy, shit." There is a one-mile waterway for crew and rowing races.  Center-town 10 miles away.

Shirley Palmer

<--------- Shirley Palmer

I don't know Shirley Palmer, pictured, but I love her name.  It sounds like a cocktail. She is the CFO of a private equity firm.

I am often asked about Eitan's name, which means 'strong,' 'firm,' and 'impetuous' in Hebrew (it is also one of the most popular names in Israel ). When Sonnet in the third-trimestre we pondered the naming-decision's powerful long-term consequences.  And, since 2000, the dawn of the dot-com era, I wanted to go with something weird like "Atom" or "Egon".  Fortunately Sonnet's judgment prevailed and, while not quite up there with the great African American names (A quick review of the NFL offers : Daunte Culpepper, Jarious Jackson, DeJuan Tribble, Melvin Bullitt .. . ) , Eitan holds its own.

My sixth-grade class, which was equally mixed blacks and whites, had Candy Jackson, Jabber Wilson, LaChantelle Williams and Phat and Trung, who only need a first-name like "Madonna." Total boat people story, too. All beautiful kids .. Sadly, at least four of my 25-class dead from unnatural causes.

As for Phat and Turng : They worked for the Golden Eye commercial fishing boat out of the Berkeley Marina for years. Then bought it. Then bought two other commercial fishing boats. Phat was always the serious one who introduced me to black fighting crickets. Trung is married with a couple of kids. Their parents opened up a Viet Namese restaurant on University Ave in Berkeley which was there for years. They recently retired. A good story.

Valentine's Day (Three Cards+Madeleine)

Me: "Do you have a special Valentine?"
Madeleine: "What do you mean?"
Me: "I don't know - is there anybody you have given a card to?"
Madeleine: "All the girls are, like, that is so last year."
Me: "Oh?"
Madeleine: "And it's the girls who always give the valentines to the girls."
Me: "Not to the boys?"
Madeleine: "No, way. That would be suspicious Dad."
Me:
Madeleine (with emphasis): "Like, so suspicious."
Me: "That's the last thing you would want to do. Let some boy know you like him."
Madeleine: "You just don't know what it's like to be a kid."
Me: "I was once a kid, you know."
Madeleine:
Me: "And we gave Valentines to each other."
Madeleine: "Like a hundred years ago.
Me: "Fair enough."

A Beautiful Voice

Whitney Houston, pop superstar and Newark native, dead at 48. The cause either bathtub drowning or prescription drugs. In my mind's eye, Houston, from the '80s, perfect. We have lost another beautiful voice.

America has a nasty little drugs habit. Unlike the past, today's abusers are, by majority, middle- to later-aged affluent whites who begin their addiction easily enough : perhaps a minor sports surgery or mild-prescription. The result : 28,000 people died from unintentional prescription drug overdose in 2007, the year with the most recent data (source: Office of National Drug Control Policy). This exceeds the number of people who died in the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and the black tar heroin epidemic of the 1970s. 

Houston's end crosses all races and classes but must be particularly hard on the black community. She has been a role model and one of many upward steps to the White House.
(Photo from the WWW)

Bushy Park 5K

Eitan keen to qualify for a "mini" marathon which he learned about through school. He does not know much more, like, the distance of the mini marathon. But, today, it is a 5K. The race part of a weekly series run across the UK including Richmond Park. It is well organised, too : I register on the web, print my and Eitan's bar code , which is scanned at the finish-line with results emailed inside the hour.

Temperature -6 degrees when we leave the house : both of us in running shorts and shivering like jello. At line-up it is not much better, either, but when the gun goes we forget the cold. Eitan a capable athlete and  keeps to my shoulder most of the way with a surge at the last 100 meters. Puff. Puff. Puff. We are 77 and 78th place, respectively (the boy in front) out of 725 ; our time : 20 minutes, 42 seconds.  Me, I am over the moon to run without injury. And a race? I am like 30 all over again.

Afterwards we discuss pace, timing and strategy. Eitan pleased with himself in a bashful-confident sort of way. As for the mini marathon : who knows? but I assume his time qualifies but, since Eitan does not know this crucial detail , either, he will have to wait and see.

"You find out a lot about yourself through athletics. If you're cut out to be a winner or a failure or a quitter, athletics will bring it out of you. You're always stripping yourself down to the bones of your personality. And sometimes you just get a glimpse of the kind of talent you've been given. Sometimes I run and I don't even feel the effort of running. I don't even feel the ground. I'm just drifting."
--Steve Ovett, Middle distance runner for Great Britain

On Ratios

Sonnet: "So what are you doing in maths, anyway?"
Madeleine: "Um, stuff."
Sonnet: "Can you tell me a little more?"
Madeleine: "It begins with an 'r'"
Sonnet: "Rounding?"
Madeleine: "No, that's not it. It's rr . rrr - ratio! We're doing ratios."
Sonnet: "Can you explain that to me then?"
Madeleine: "Well imagine you have a chicken."
Me:
Madeleine: "And there is another chicken. And one chicken has five eggs. No, four. And the other has four eggs."
Sonnet: "Yes?"
Madeleine: "And there are like two chickens for, um, eight eggs. That is a ratio."
Sonnet: "Well done."
Madeleine: "And if you have, like, two hands and ten fingers that is , um, two to ten."
Me: "Makes sense to me."
Sonnet: "Well done, Madeleine."

All Stars

Is this the best sneaker ever made ?

I had my first pair of 'Chucks' in Junior High, when the fashion was an off-cream. The only other acceptable canvas was the Sperry Top Sider, but that is another blog. Converse went with about anything an 11 or 12 year old could wear but especially blue jeans where they were - and are - the perfect complement. What's more, they age well : like 501's which were, like, perfect after 50 washings, the All Star even more cool when the fabric frayed and white rubber scuffed.

All Stars introduced in 1917 to capture the new basketball shoe market. Chuck Taylor, a basketball player and shoe salesman, improved the design and became the shoe's spokesperson in the 1920s.  He was successful, too : Any photo from the NBA in the '50s or '60s will have a pair of Cons - back then, players wore them with short-shorts, as was the fashion and who knows why ?  In 2002, Nike bought the company for $305 million.

Some of us liked the 'high top' which, in the summer, went well with shorts or whatever. For me, it has always been about the classic : the tight lacing and lack of sole make it a perfect match for skinny trousers, which I prefer in my middle yuf.  K-Swiss and Adidas or Nike retros all fine for boxier leggings and Michael Jordans for, you know, real basketball players. All Stars have their own place in my wardrobe and my heart. The only concession I make for now : I only wear them new.

Madeleine's Bedroom

Sunday evening Sonnet and I take the kiddies, against their will, to see "Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan," at London's National Gallery on its closing night, no less. The exhibitions includes nine of da Vinci's 15-surviving paintings - the first time so many of the master's works exhibited together (A historian on Radio 4 advises : each painting should be viewed for a minimum of 20 minutes, which raises a groan from the back seat as Eitan quickly does the maths). Says the curator of Italian painting pre-1500 Luke Syson : "Once-in-a-lifetime experience".

The show's focus on  da Vinci's work at the Sforza Court in Milan (1480-90) as a painter and engineer for the Duke. During this period he produced the "La Belle Ferronniere," "The Lady with an Ermine" (my favourite), "Virgin On The Rocks" (the first time on loan from the Louvre) and that little fresco, "The Last Supper" (which my sister recreated on the wall of a frozen yogurt shop in Boston while Harvard).  All of these works, barring "The Last Supper" (which is painted onto the wall of a church in Milan) on view. It is a ring-side seat to the beginning of the Renaissance.  Wow. Wow.

 From da Vinci to the Super Bowl. One spectacle to another.

Eitan's Bedroom

Eitan and I to Fulham football practise but cancelled due to cold (frozen pitch).  At Eitan's urging, and to his great surprise, we stop at Krispy Kreme on the way home and I love it : real Americana right next to the fly-over, complete with booths of teen-agers drinking coffee.  We select a box of twelve donuts, eat four, and bring the rest home for breakfast or whenever.  Since Madeleine not with us, she gets first choice on the next four.  Eitan grumbles but thems the rules.

Driving home. Eitan: "Do you think I could eat a billion oranges?"
Me: "Interesting . .."
Eitan: "I mean, if they are peeled."
Me: "Well, let's break it down. How long will you live?"
Eitan: "80 years."
Me: "So how many days is that ?
Eitan: "Um, 29,200."
Me: "Good, and what is one billion divided by 29,200? You can round to 29,000 if you want."
Eitan: "34,482."
Me: "That's a lot of diarrhea."
Eitan: "I could still do it."
Me:
Eitan: "Do you think there are a trillion grains of sand on the beech?"
Me: "Break it down for me, kid .. ."

Double Digits

Madeleine turns ten and things will never be quite the same .  Tonight, it is Wagamama's (her choice) where we discuss nine's highlights (and I quote): "stuff." 


Madeleine always an original. From the mad dash down the birth canal (too quick for an epidural) to the first breath : "Here I am!".   Later, it was tree climbing :  Look, there's my daughter, twenty-five feet overhead. This taught the unteachables : risk-taking, goal setting .. determination. Stubborness.  No matter how I holler or coax, she is on her own time.

From reception , Madeleine has been a "tom boy,"  scraped elbows and bruised shins. Her friends are mostly all boys at a time when girls still the enemy. This not always easy when the birthday party-invitations and over-nights don't come.  Her heart otherwise filled with pets : bugs to fish to hamsters to Rusty (and soon, a lizard. .. ).

Madeleine today borders primary and secondary school; being a kid and adolescence.  She watches Eitan take the first steps off the cliff : sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse.  We observe her progress in school, in drama and art, and sports, with wonderment and delight. What will the next year bring ? What joy to be around.

Nigel Doughty, RIP

Nigel Doughty died Saturday, age 54. With Dick Hanson, he founded one of Europe's most respected buy-out firms, Doughty Hanson, which has invested €23 billion in over 100 deals.  Doughty self-made and helped create the industry that made him rich.

Our paths crossed a few times : in 1997 I interviewed for Associate , my ears still wet from MBA school. By today's standards, Doughty Hanson then small , with maybe £1 billion under management.  Following eight interviews, Nigel enters , no pre-amble : "Using the capital asset pricing model please explain why Doughty Hanson has been able to achieve superior returns." Me, blank. Doughty: "Feel free to use the chalkboard."  Yes, an unfair question - CAPM used to value companies, not explain a firm's success - but it was all him : punchy, direct, challenging and a bit of fun. I didn't get the job.

In '99 I went back to Nigel and this time Doughty Hanson gave me $8 million to launch an Internet company.  The firm had taken an interest in the technology business, forming a maiden venture fund, and I was his first investment.

When not trading companies, Doughty's interests covered politics ( major donor, Labour party), "responsible capitalism" (Founded the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield Mgmt School) and football (owner of Nottingham Forest Football Club).  Private equity and all of us lost a good one. (photo from the www)

The Grinch

Sonnet takes Eitan to a swimming gala while Madeleine and I to the park, pictured, she begging me for a snowball fight or a snowman (I decline). Yes, I am grumpy from last week's surgery and last night's party-cocktails+the early rise does not help ( though I did enjoy watching late night tele with Sonnet, eating eggs, and watching the snow fall).  Rusty in on the action, and I almost knock a guy's block off when he hits the dog, who is otherwise playing with the dude's pooch. Only I can hit Rusty. 

I ask Madeleine to write a three-page story and, after some mild protestations, she produces : "The Greek Who Stole Christmas."  Does she mean Grinch? "No, Dad, it's about a Greek."  And, I think, perhaps she has it right.

At the Surrey County Swimming Championships, Eitan swims the 400-meter freestyle in 5:23 , an 11-second improvement, and the same time as his pal Philippe. Coach says: "I see the next generation of club swimmers here." 

First Snow

Richmond Park , around 10:20AM, Sunday.

Sonnet and I to Lizzie and Ferdie's wedding party .. or is it Lizzie's 40th ? Who knows. They have been together a long time - long enough to have children, ages 7 and five, and married last year. Ferdie at an Italian bank where he was head of risk; now he is doing more operational and balance sheet work. His view : The world coming to an end, but let us not focus on that.  Lizzie and Sonnet former colleagues at the V & A and fast friends : Lizzie being one of the few people I know who can make Sonnet laugh with abandon.  Lizzie's parents Dons at Oxford while she went to Cambridge.

One of Lizzie's party friends, Julie, an attractive 28 or 29 - enough to catch an eye and worth a conversation : the more intriguing when I learn she has a Cabinet Job , and responsible for security during, and running up to, the summer Olympics. Her staff of 42 coordinates with The Met Office, military and other protective forces (she: "I will be in a silo off Downing St during the games."). After earning a PhD, Julie "worked on " the 2002 foot-and-mouth crisis when Britain slaughtered over 100,000 cattle. She joined govt, with a shrug, instead of profit-making schemes, like The City, to have an impact and I think : Kennedy or Clinton, when young people chose public service over their purse. She now briefs the Prime Minister, David Cameron, weekly.  Julie tells me "He likes to take decisions , unlike Gordon Brown."  She would know.