Week Ending: Ellis enjoys life with the A-listers; World Cup Fever; Kelly Review
IT seems that Manchester legal headhunter and deal-maker Rod Ellis has joined the international jet-set.
Rod, founder of the Re Legal consultancy, was invited to South America with legendary Manchester band New Order, during which time he rubbed shoulders with the likes of musicians Johnny Marr and Jake Bugg and A-list celebs Kate Moss, Sharon Stone and Naomi Campbell.
So how did this come about, Week Ending asks: “Well, the two guys in the flat below me, Tom Cunningham and Tom Chapman, play with New Order and I got to know them and did a bit of legal work for them.
“As a thank-you they invited me to join the tour to Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina with them. Being backstage at all the gigs was an absolutely amazing experience and while we were in Buenos Aries we were invited for cocktails at the British Ambassador’s residence too.”
He refused to confirm or deny that he is now taking music lessons from his neigbours with a view to packing in his day job and joining the entourage full time.
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THE World Cup is looming and demand for former England footballers to appear on the corporate circuit is picking up too.
In recent weeks Bank of New York Mellon has welcomed ex-Arsenal and England defender Sol Campbell to its Manchester office – where he took part in a mentoring session for staff and young people.
Meanwhile in the surroundings of a hospitality box at the Grand National meeting in Aintree, former Everton, Man City and England man Peter Reid popped up and was snapped with Simon Allport, EY’s North West chief.
Despite being a Huddersfield Town fan, Allport insists he IS a fan of the beautiful game, so much so that he and one of his sons willl be Brazil for the competition.
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IT has been another week of adverse headlines for the beleaguered Co-operative Bank and Group.
Having waded through 158-pages Week Ending has a couple of observations.
Firstly – it cost the loss-making mutual a pretty penny – £4.4m quid for the former Whitehall mandarin to point out what went wrong in the run-up to last year’s crisis.
Secondly, his criticism of former Britannia Building Society and Co-op Financial Services Neville Richardson, who had always seemed a good sort to us, was particularly biting.
Richardson, who co-operated fully with Kelly in his review, got more of a spanking than Paul Flowers, the former Co-op Bank chairman, who despite his recent Newsnight appearance, refused to be interviewed.
Perhaps Flowers was pre-occupied with matters legal – he was recently charged with drug possession offences.
