Opening Of The New Z/Yen Office

Z/Yen moved into its new, larger office at the end of September, but the address is still, 5-7 St. Helens Place. In the fine Z/Yen tradition of minimising stationery changes, the new offices are in the same building (indeed, across the corridor on the same floor). This enormous saving has enabled us to bring in some mod-cons for the first time, e.g., electronic abacuses. Linda Cook has done a truly excellent job in managing the move and we all feel that the new offices are actually a pleasant place to be. Please come and visit!!

Just Like Buses……

You wait ages and then two come along together. Saturday 9 September saw the arrival of two Z/Yen babies. Mary O’Callaghan and her husband Alex are over the moon with their first born, Aiden.

Just to prove that all the best things in life are worth waiting for, Aiden, who weighted in at over 9 pounds, arrived after 25 hours of labour! There have to be easier ways of avoiding working with Ian Harris than that. Laura Wright also gave birth to Jake – a younger brother for George.

Both mothers and babies are doing well and we all send them many congratulations. Ian Harris is of course busy recruiting. No, not replacement staff; Ian is rushing to sign the two new arrivals to Z/Yen’s Youth Cricket Academy.

Experts For Projects

SpecialiZm continues to place experts into project management roles. We are currently helping with the development of a new London visitor centre incorporating some state-of-the-art electronic communications. We also found an expert for a leading charity and he is documenting IT policies and procedures.

In the same vein, Jeremy Taylor is also busy implementing a commodities trading system for a leading investment bank.

Another Z/Yen Acronym

We have just started compiling the GFCCI or Global Financial Centres Competitiveness Index which will be launched by the City of London at the end of the year. The index will be built by our prediction engine PropheZy using inputs from a number of published indices and a regular survey of finance professionals. If you would like to know more or participate in the online survey see here.

Farsight Awards

The Farsight Award, created to honour the best in long term research, was awarded on 21 September to Citigroup analysts Heath Jansen, Mike Tyrrell and Alan Heap. The inaugural award was presented by Sir Paul Judge at a Gresham College lecture in London’s Docklands attended by more than 400 finance industry professionals. The awards were followed by a lecture from Prof. Werner Seifert, former CEO of Deutsche Börse, on globalisation.

The Farsight Award is a project between the Universities Superannuation Scheme and Gresham College with support from Z/Yen and was formed in direct response to criticism of the increasing short-term nature of financial markets around the world. The founders wish to honour analysis which best integrates traditional financial analysis with longer term issues such as climate change, governance & human capital.

While Michael Mainelli was pleased to oversee events, he was a little disappointed that everyone expected to see some cartoons from Gary Larsen rather than a superb bunch of research reports.

And It’s Hello To Them..

Firstly a warm welcome to new associates Martyn Howell (London) and Peter Cardosa (Asia) who have joined the Financial Services team working on the Operational Performance surveys.

Secondly, we also welcome Alison Rosen who is working with Ian Harris on a variety of not-for-profit projects, plus Peter Cox who is working with one of our favourite charity clients.

And It’s Goodbye From Him...

Sadly, we are saying Goodbye to Giles Wright who has decided to leave Z/Yen to emigrate to Australia.

Giles was with us for 6 years and project managed the Cost per Trade Benchmarking projects for the last 3 years. We all wish Giles and wife Nikki good luck (as long as England retains the Ashes!).

Running Out Of Space

Finally, congratulations to Jeremy Smith and Francesca Birch for completing the Great North Run the other week.