ICIS folk are no strangers to the world of the rich and famous. At the Royal Opera House to see L'elisir d'amore on Saturday, my colleague Linda told me that a friend of hers, Professor Jacek Rostowski had just been made Polish finance minister. And today she phoned to say that she saw Emilia Fox (actress film star) in the garden centre.
Chris Wilson at ICIS has met top footballers Damien Duff (Newcastle, ex-Chelsea) and Mark Bright (England team), and Brian Moore (rugby legend and commentator), and has the photos to prove it.
And Rebecca Smith found herself in a petrol station with notorious MP George Galloway.
Fertilizers editor Rebecca Clarke has met numerous rugby stars and even been to the home of gardening celeb Alan Titchmarsh. And our own olefins expert Ed Cox in his Oxford days met Maureen Lipman (actress comedienne), Jerry Springer (talkshow host) and Audley Harrison (Olympic super-heavyweight boxing champion). Sadly the photo of Ed and Audley didn't come out.
George Lowrie, our promotions co-ordinator, used to hang out with the Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards, and also met Miss India (of Miss World fame) in the lobby of a hotel in Mumbai, and she was gracious enough to let him have his photo taken with her. This brought back fond memories for Raj, who spent some happy times in 1987 interviewing contestants for Miss Universe in Singapore.
And I too had my moment in the spotlight when I met President Robert Mugabe. Thom at the LME tells me the photo is still hanging on the wall of BPF in London.
ICIS training staff have held seminars in the same hotels where famous footballers have been staying. The England football team were staying and holding press conferences in the Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam, in November last year at the same time we were running seminars. Earlier in April of that year, the German football team were carrying out team selections in rooms next to ours at the Hilton Hotel in Dusseldorf. So maybe there is a good chance that you will meet a footballer on an ICIS training course.
I'm thinking your next blog entry should be "ICIS look-a-likees"... Chris Wilson and Brian Moore must have been seperated at birth!
You should ask Joe Chang about his past tryst with Cher in Las Vegas...He's got a photo to prove it too!