Throughout my rather long business career (of now in excess of 50 years!) I have worked in several sectors of the investment banking world, starting with an excellent apprenticeship at the long-defunct - but at the time leading - merchant bank called Samuel Montagu, which was a leading member of the London Bullion Market. Although I didn't actually work in that department, I "sniffed" the excitement of gold.

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Moving on, I became a stockbroker, worked as deputy head of corporate finance for a private bank, and then launched my first business, a mergers and acquisitions company called InterCompany Acquisitions & Investments which, as the name implied, focused on deals between companies (where, for example, Company A had an unwanted subsidiary or division, but which was of interest to Company B).

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As a result of being in the M&A space, I spotted an opportunity to acquire control of a London listed industrial distribution company for practically nothing. Great, but it was on the point of going bust (hence the nothing price). So several years of hard graft followed to turn it around, which I did. In so doing I attracted the attention of buyers who were prepared to pay me real money! I succumbed to the temptation and quit, to enjoy a well-deserved year's sabbatical at my home on the West Coast of Scotland. 

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Somewhat bored after a while, I was tempted back into business by an offer to join a London-listed oil and gas exploration company as its deputy Chair. I was then a good "name" to attract investment, which I did. This took me to the US (where its assets were), and also to Canada. Here I mingled with folk in the gold mining space. Not long after, I bought a substantial stake in a TSX listed gold developer, and joined its board.

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Fast forward a few months, and I acquired a large position in a Denver-based, NASDAQ listed, former oil company, with the intention of using it as a vehicle to make acquisitions in the gold space. Several acquisitions followed, and I was on the point of putting together a three-way deal to merge my company and other assets into a 100k:oz p/a producer when disaster struck ...!

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.... it's too long a story to tell here, so let's move on! I retired again (with tail duly between my legs) to my lochside home in Scotland. After a tough time, including some unpleasant litigation with the bank that had caused the disaster (through a gross breach of confidentiality which eventually forced the bank to surrender its banking licence), I picked up the pieces of my life, and started all over again!

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These "pieces" included some very successful investments in the gold space, and a taste of my former life as a merger broker. We now come to where I met the people at ISM Capital about 12 years ago, and my subsequent, and continuing, involvement in the convertible bond business!