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Welcome to my new website

Many of us over 60 are counted out when part-time jobs come up despite our collective wisdom and abilities.

To counter some of this prejudice I have dispensed with sending my CV and have instead created The Complete Picture, an animated ninety second overview of my life to date @ https://vimeo.com/223960456.

 

 

 

Blog

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31
MAY
Cocorose were the worthy winners of our PoP@HoF over 15 days. More soon.
31
MAY
I managed to sneak into Ronnie's on Thursday evening to hear Madeleine Peyroux for the third time
29
MAY
I was an invited guest at the premier of Ken Loach's new film Jimmy's Hall last night at the BFI. It is a lovely film set on the west coast of Ireland in the 1930s. It is a slight, romantically tinged tale but as you would expect involves the church, a nascent IRA and landowners. It was beautifully shot. Definitely worth a viewing.   www.jimmyhallsfilm.ie
29
MAY
Our PoP@HoF finished on bank Holiday Monday; our ten winners collectively turned over nearly £60k. We are announcing the winners of the competition later today! 
29
MAY
Social Networking 2/17 19-26 May 2014 Monday Conference call Crowdbnk Dean Stewart @ Peter Jones Ian Pearson @ Pimlico Tuesday Chelsea Flower Show PoP@HoF Wednesday PoP @ HoF John Greg MP @ Westminster RPA Dinner @ Battersea Bump Rob Andrew Ken Kennedy Vic Luck James Hibbert Thursday Jeh Kazimi @ Pimlico Surrey RFU Dinner @ Twickenham Bump Ian Ritchie, CEO, RFU Keith Heal, President, Surrey RFU Friday Supper @ Crown Inn,...
29
MAY
Suffolk: steal a lazy long weekend there soon by Derek Wyatt  I would spend most of my summer holidays as a boy with my grandfather in his small terraced house in The Croft, Bures on the Stour which bordered Essex and Suffolk. He had retired early from the Admiralty and sought a place by the sea to continue his love of sailing but somehow ended up in a backwater.   He was a canny old bird. Every day he would try to avoid the washing up! He would go and do the daily...
29
MAY
On Monday, Jack and I went to say goodbye to Jan Brychta a dear friend of ours for 30 years. He was a famous Czech artist (alongside Lida, his wife) and together they made the painful decision to leave their beloved country as the Russian troops rolled down Wencelas Square in 1968. Eventually, as so many refugees do, they settled in London and to a new life here (not always easy). It was a moving occasion with deft speeches from Alex and Edita, their children.
22
MAY
I was a guest last night of Vic Luck at the RPA Awards dinner which was great fun.
22
MAY
Yesterday, I met John Glen MP for Salisbury and we had a long and helpful chat about the place of innovation in the NHS.
22
MAY
I was at our Pop@HoF store(s) yesterday and Tuesday to see how they were progressing. I was interviewed for our web site and introduced the stall holders to Crowdbnk.   
22
MAY
Last week I popped into the Jazz awards and met James Pearson, the musical director at Ronnie Scott's, and Ambre Hammond, the celebrated Australian pianist, as you do.
22
MAY
Last Tuesday evening, I was a guest at the opening of Andrew Parsons outstanding photographic exhibition sponsored by Maitland entitled Royalty, Politics and War. I was busy minding my own business when in walked first George Osborne (who has lost a lot of weight) and David Cameron - an impressive call by the sponsors! Andrew's photos are fantastic.
22
MAY
Last Friday and Saturday, we went up to stay at the Swan Inn in Lavenham. I hadn't visited the village since 1974.......but not much had changed and probably hasn't for centuries. It has a spectacular collection of 15th and 16th century houses and a wonderful, wonderful square. We were quite taken by the church too.
22
MAY
On Tuesday, I went to my first - and hopefully not my last - Chelsea Flower Show and loved it. I am not a gardener but I loved the whole thing though it took a toll of my poor old legs. 
13
MAY
On Thursday evening I went to a launch party in Somerset House for Ian Leslie's book on Curiosity. I had been invited by the evergreen enthusiast, Steve Moore. The book joins a slighter longer reading queue in my front room!
13
MAY
I had seen both Joanna Hogg's previous films - Unrelated (2008) and Archipelago (2010) - and I have met her a couple of times (both grandparents were Labour MPs). I saw her latest - Exhibition - at the Barbican over the Bank holiday weekend. It was a tougher call to stay the course and at times I found the subject matter bleak.  
13
MAY
The ten stalls by the ground floor escalator were open for business this morning at 0930 and will be for the next 12 days. Do go along and support our start up businesses.
13
MAY
Last Friday week, I spoke at Westcombe Park's annual rugby dinner. I talked about the need to have special starting event to open the season and the thorny issue of concussion. In between, I tried my hand at telling jokes. It was a fun evening.
13
MAY
Last Tuesday Crowdbnk held an investor evening at our old HQ in Shoreditch (we have since moved to Old St!) and last Thursday we held our monthly board meeting in Kensington. There is much speculation as to how the future of crowd sourcing in all its forms will develop. One potential investor did ask me whether the missing letter in Crowdbnk was an "o".....these city types.....
13
MAY
I drove out to Harwell last Tuesday for a staff meeting (my second). We have a talented group of people.
13
MAY
We travelled down to Sittingbourne last Sunday to have lunch with our dear friends Roger and Christine Truelove. One of us caught up with all the local political gossip!
12
MAY
Last Thursday, I slipped into Costa in Kensington for a cappuccino before our Crowdbnk board meeting when suddenly there was a voice behind me shouting "Hello Derek" . Of course, I turned round and who was the culprit, as it were, our dear PM.  We had a private conversation and then he was gone - at the advice, no doubt, of his security men ......
12
MAY
I went to see the Quins v Bath game at the Stoop on Saturday along with 14,500 others which given the Sevens tournament on at Twickers meant nearly 100,000 people were converging by road and rail on tiny plots of land. You would think that Quins could have been allowed to play on Friday night.... Anyway, the match was full of errors - Bath lost the lineouts by poor throwing in whereas the Quins backs knocked on half a dozen times...... In the end Quins had more endeavour and just deserved
12
MAY
Over the bank holiday, we took the water taxi from Pimlico to Tate Modern which was great fun. First we visited old Tate for a rather ordinary breakfast in the new members' room. At TM we saw the Henri Matisse exhibition entitled The Cut-Outs which was frankly unremarkable. We then went on to visit the Richard Hamilton which by contrast was simply stunning.
12
MAY
On Thursday evening, I attended a debate at the RSA entitled: How do we drive productivity & innovation in the charity sector? Time for an injection of creative destruction Given by Dan Corry, CEO New Philanthropy Capital The talk and further information is on www.thersa.org  (use the search).  
12
MAY
Last night, board members of the Great Retail Revival Foundation, visited House of Fraser in Oxford Street, to help our ten winners set up their stalls for today's opening! I am going later today.
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