"We shadow the famous and the unsung on a typical day."
David Potter's career has included stints as chief executive of Guinness Mahon Holdings and senior positions at Credit Suisse First Boston, Samuel Montagu, and Midland Bank. Most recently, he was a headhunter with The Rose Partnership. He's now looking for his next assignment while acting as an advisor to several companies and theoretically spending more time with his family and his golf clubs.
6:45 a.m.: Up and dressed. Definitely a suit today, I think. To my study to check overnight e-mails, read the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times while my daughter Harriet gets ready for school. I can't take her today because of my breakfast meeting.
7:45 a.m.: To breakfast with the Lord Mayor at The Mansion House. He has gathered a varied group of individuals led by Judith Mayhew, chairman of the policy and resources committee, to discuss financing for the creative industries. We conclude that we need a connection between creative entrepreneurs, the numerous "angel" groups and corporation-led initiatives, such as Business Link.
9:30 a.m.: Arrive at Clear's offices in Regent Street for the fortnightly board meeting. Clear is in the electronic-bill presentment and payment business. I'm advising the board and senior management on strategy and finance.
11:00 a.m.: Phone Wasfi Kani about the fund-raising committee for the development of Grange Park Opera. Also touch base with Steve Long, finance director of King's College London who's finalizing a Ј60 million, 30-year private placement. I'm chairman of the finance committee. It's quite a pleasure to be on the other side of the table as the borrower instead of the investment banker.
11:30 a.m.: To W1 to see a headhunter. She knows my career and me well and the discussion revolves around my aim to have a major job focus rather than "go plural." She thinks that, at 56 years old, I should look for a significant chairmanship rather than a CEO role. Her firm is just embarking on a search for the chairman of a private bank and she'll put my name on the "long list." She asks my advice about a search she's doing for the chief financial officer of a retailer who wants someone with a financial-services background. I give her a few names.
12:30 p.m.: Lunch at the London Capital Club with one of my former Guinness Mahon corporate-finance colleagues. Catch up on how Investec is doing. I bounce some ideas I have about consolidation in the human-capital industry.
2:00 p.m.: Visit the CEO of a fund manager to update him. Discuss the state of the private-equity market post the dot-com crash. Talk about the deflationary forces we see in the economy, interest rates, house prices, stock market and pensions. Leave him a copy of my recent article in the Guardian on deflation.
3:15 p.m.: To the Institute of Directors to make and return calls. Talk to Tim Noble, the chairman of Nobles, the Edinburgh merchant bank, about the private finance initiative and corporate finance. Call John Deman, CEO of InfoCandy, an online consolidator of magazine subscriptions, and give him three introductions to corporate librarians. Call three other headhunters and a couple of friends to get some background on a company that I may be interested in.
4:00 p.m.: A welcome cup of tea. Call a venture-capital firm to whom Clear gave a presentation a couple of days ago to get their feedback. Call former CEO of Midland to ask him if he would act as a reference. Call John Brookes at Stork & May, the career consultants who are advising me, for our weekly briefing. Make six other "networking" calls to business and financial-service chiefs so they know I'm in the market. Fix game of golf with recently "retired" investment banker. He upbraids me for having a diary that means we can't play for three weeks.
4:30 p.m.: Visit John Cutts at DCM Online to hear how this new platform for primary eurobond issuance and information is going. Discuss ways in which I might be able to help them.
6:00 p.m.: Pop into a private view at Sotheby's, an online auction for Action on Addiction and stay longer than I mean to. Meet lots of friends including David Puttnam. We have a good catch-up. This reminds me I must increase the stroke on looking at media companies. I used to be chairman of The London Film Commission and Guinness Mahon had a major technology, media and telecommunications business. I'm still a trustee of the National Film and TV School.
7:15 p.m.: Back home. Help Harriet finish math homework and do her daily spelling test. Check and respond to the day's e-mails/post/calls.
8:15 p.m.: Jill and I grab a cab to dinner with Denis Worrall, the former South African High Commissioner. I want to catch up on South Africa as I spent quite a lot of time there in recent years and this is something I might be able to capitalize on.
10:30 p.m.: Back to Norland Square, final e-mail check and send off a couple of CVs to the headhunters I talked to earlier. And so to bed. It has been another varied and stimulating day but I look forward to achieving a sharper focus in the near future.
