Sol's still shifting the paradigms
A different style of rebel was occupying Wall Street last week and championing the cause of the oppressed masses. Sol "Guevara" Trujillo - "global CEO and corporate director" according to a Fox News story - was telling his fellow members of the gilded set what an economic force his Hispanic community was becoming.
A different style of rebel was occupying Wall Street last week and championing the cause of the oppressed masses. Sol "Guevara" Trujillo - "global CEO and corporate director" according to a Fox News story - was telling his fellow members of the gilded set what an economic force his Hispanic community was becoming.In what Fox described as a "paradigm-shifting keynote speech" at New York's Wall Street Summit, the former Telstra chief spruiked the $US1.1 trillion ($1.04 trillion) economic might of the US Hispanic community, which easily exceeds the size of pissant G20 nations such as say, Australia.This summit occupied Wall Street in name only. New York's Waldorf Astoria provided much better digs than the other gathering of the oppressed on the hard pavement of Wall Street itself.CRITICS CANNEDThe champion of the nuclear age, Toro Energy has been at it again, using the West Australian newspaper the Kalgoorlie Miner to hit back at some of the outdated facts and selected reporting used by anti-uranium groups blowing through town on the way to CHOGM in Perth."An accusation that 'Toro is notorious for peddling junk-science' unfortunately ignores the indisputable facts underpinning the industry and is typical of their dismissal of any view which does not support their own," the head of the budding uranium miner, Greg Hall, said in a letter to the paper.He was at pains to assure Kalgoorlie locals that they were not being accused of any lefty, pinko leanings themselves."The protesters, we understand, were mostly from Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, and from our conversations were very much anti-mining as well as anti-uranium," he wrote.He canned the nuclear critics for a shaky use of the scientific rigour they insist on when it comes to debating other controversial topics, like climate change.Hall went on to describe climate change as "an an exciting and evolving branch of global climate science, hypothesising and developing new theories and testing against actual observations".Toro last grabbed the headlines in June when clearing the air on some of the "sensationalist" media coverage of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident.GOOD TIMINGIt is not often that an executive can turn up at an AGM saying they are genuinely pleased to be there.Craig Mitchell, the chief number cruncher at Dexus, made the property group's shareholders meeting yesterday by the slimmest of margins, having been on a Qantas flight that was halfway down a Los Angeles runway - and hence officially "in flight" - when the airline grounded its fleet on Saturday.Another Qantas flight further back in the queue did have to turn back and encourage the passengers to spend some more time enjoying the US of A.The timing could also have been better for the travel event Corroboree 2011, which has brought "Aussie specialist" retail travel agents from the Americas to Australia to promote our shores.FAMED 'FERRET'It is a sure sign that you have made it when James Packer agrees to take a break from his pokie battles and appear in a spoof reel on your behalf.Such is the charmed life of former Herald journalist and head of Perpetual Funds, John Sevior, who was inducted into the hall of fame at the Fund Manager of the Year Awards.To mark the occasion, his old mate and fellow hall of famer David Paradice made a short movie on the life and career of a man they apparently call the "ferret".Having been as elusive as Packer over the past six months, Sevior laughed through the 10 minute roast which featured a cameo from the big man.When asked what his opinion of 'Sevvy' was, Packer, sitting an a nondescript office cubicle, replied "I have dreamed about working with the ferret for my whole life"."But he is f---ing boring when he talks about cricket and I have to leave the room when it's AFL," the billionaire sports buff said.Sevior was suitably modest amid the hoopla, adding that after six months off he feared his "brain had turned into mush".BIDDING WARWhile the gambling appetites of us normal folk peak today with a bunch of nags being flogged around a track in a bleak city, for fund managers there is the Calcutta auction organised around favoured stocks at last week's annual awards ceremony.CLSA Australia's James Paterson obviously profited from last year's trek around the mining back blocks after his bid on Hunnu Coal won him the 2010-11 Calcutta.The way the Calcutta works is half the pool of money bid on the stocks goes to the winning picker the rest goes to charity. The stock that Paterson picked for this year's Calcutta, Tigers Realm Coal, topped the bids last week at $18,000 with the total pool reaching $90,000.The team at Regal were the biggest contributors this year, lodging winning bids for three of the 12 stocks including Tigers Realm. Not to be outdone, Michael Johnson of Macquarie bid $5500 for Ten Network, while Peter Roberts of CLSA punted $15,000 on BlueScope Steel.Scott Rochfort is on leave.Got a tip? Use our online tips box or email srochfort@smh.com.au Twitter: @srochfort
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