Finally, looking back over the last year, and given that this column is largely dependent on the people I know in the market and the people I am privileged to meet, I wanted to recognize some of my 2010 highlights:
Best meeting attended: meeting at Credit Suisse’s New York headquarters in June with my editor and Paul Calello, the late chairman of Credit Suisse’s investment bank.
Best dinner companion: Brady Dougan, Credit Suisse’s chief executive, at the Euromoney Awards Dinner in July.
Best luncheon companion: Jean Pierre Mustier, former chief executive of Société Générale’s investment bank, at Scott’s restaurant in London.
Best breakfast companion: in general, I hate breakfast meetings. One of the reasons I left investment banking was to avoid all that early-morning bonhomie. For some reason I made an exception for Franck Petitgas, global co-head of investment banking at Morgan Stanley, and it was worth it.
Best new find: Kate Richdale, Morgan Stanley’s co-head of investment banking, Asia-Pacific. I also immensely enjoyed meeting Vikram Pandit, Ken Moelis, Christian Meissner and John Hyman.
In 2011, I would like to meet former JPMorgan banker Bill Winters – about whom I have heard so many good things; Jane Fraser, head of Citi’s private bank; and Tidjane Thiam, chief executive of Prudential.