first speaker event...

Thursday evening we had our first of many speakers come to the school. The event was held by the Oxford Private equity Network, and was titled "Private Equity: Venture or Adventure?" The two speakers at the event were Philip Green and David Bonderman, both very well known in the UK and the owners of just an incomprehensible amount of businesses. The two talked about their experiences buying and selling companies and their varied approaches to it. It was a very interesting talk and was followed by a long question and answer session.

During the question and answer session, one very bold classmate of mine asked Philip Green if he ever considered investing in small start-up companies as opposed to just purchasing already existing companies. Mr. Green wavered a bit with his initial response, but then said that if the school were able to come up with a short list of the ten best business proposals from our class this year, that he would give 500,000 GBP to the one he considered the best!! That puts a much higher stake on the New Business Development project we complete next term!

The speakers at the event are so rare to have in a room together that there were about 100 special guests attending as well. The guest list was quite impressive, including: Dr. John Hood, the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University; The Hon Peter Jay, Director of the Bank of England; Mr, Michael Grade, Chairman of the BBC; Mr. Gary Hoffman, CEO of Barclaycard; Mr. Stuart Rose, CEO of Marks & Spencer; Mr. Mike Sherwood, Co-CEO of Goldman Sachs; and many many others. Not bad company already before classes have even started! :)