We had troubles getting brokers to organise us meetings with management and/or past staff or customers. This is a core to the research process at Bronte (and should be core to your process too). MiFID made this harder as the brokers in Europe wanted to get paid for their (inferior) introduction services.
We found a solution. Kate Pike.
Kate used to work at Morgan Stanley in London and whilst there she was the best corporate access person we ever used. Then - for perfectly understandable reasons - she moved back to Australia. So we decided to give her a day and a half a week doing our corporate relations (and other stuff).
Fabulous does not begin to describe it.
To give an example: we were interested in a company that sold trace ingredients in fish feed for salmon farms. Without any fuss (though probably with huge hidden effort) Kate got us a phone meeting with the purchasing manager of Biomar. Biomar is the largest fish-feed maker in the world. The Biomar guy knew the prices and competitive landscape in every trace ingredient. This is the sort of meeting you pay an expert network tens of thousands dollars for.
And Kate does it for us on a relatively modest salary a day a half a week. And she is so cheerful about it too.
Not only is Kate fabulous - but she accepts pay in Australian dollars. These Pacific Peso expenses should be just fine for a New York based fund.
I am putting this advert out with vested self-interest in mind. If Kate finds enough work to fill the rest of her week (and pay for private school fees) then we reduce the risk that she goes elsewhere.
So please somebody - hire her. This is a global offer. Time zones work very well for an American based hedge fund for instance.
And did I mention Kate is wonderful.
John
PS - contact her at kate@brontecapital.com
