Ever thought about dropping out of the City or Wall Street, and setting up your own little business, producing something real and tangible, perhaps even socially useful, and fostering it all the way to an IPO? If you're an investment banker, the answer is probably ... yes.
Mehmet Golhan, Martin Kannengieser and Marc Lopresto have gone ahead and done it. After 44 years between them advising corporates and structuring derivatives at Bankers Trust, Credit Suisse Financial Products and Daiwa Securities, they've had enough. "We want to do something beneficial to society," says an impassioned Golhan, who spent most of his years in derivatives under the ultra gung-ho regime of Charlie Sanford at Bankers Trust.
Many who went through the enlightened academy that was BT in the early 1990s recall the famous tale of Sanford showing his entire banking force the clip from the movie The Untouchables where Al Capone bashes an errant mafioso's brains out with a baseball bat. Sanford then eulogized teamwork and loyalty while brandishing his own baseball bat, to rapturous applause from staff.
Golhan's gentle new goal is to create an online, home-delivery business selling organic food.