The CEO Summit earlier this week was a collection of the great and the good in British industry and government.
As well as the Prime Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition, we were entertained by Boris Johnson and lectured by Michael Gove. Michael told us that at age 11 children in Singapore out perform our own schoolchildren in English, what an absolute disgrace.
Delegates included Dr Mike Lynch of Autonomy, Lord Paul from Caparo, Sir Stuart Rose, Willie Walsh, Lord Wolfson from Next, and Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone, who told us all that his wife had trouble getting a mobile broadband signal during a weekend away in the countryside. Remarkable honesty but also quite funny.
But with all these high flyers and leading politicians, let me tell you who really impressed me. It was Rupert Murdoch.
Here is a man who is 80 years old but physically in great shape with a razor sharp mind, great sense of humour and an ability to cut through to the core of an issue in a very direct but perhaps outspoken manner.
Worth more then $6 billion he sat with us all during the conference, apparently with no security, and certainly no pomp or fuss. He spoke with passion and vision about his new venture into educational media in the US and told us how he was embracing digital distribution. He said he did not care if we did not buy his newspapers because the content would be viewed on line instead. This is quite something from a man who made his fortune from newspapers.
When I briefly spoke to him after his presentation he was charming, polite and grateful to receive positive feedback.
So I wondered what the secret of having that much energy at 80 years old must be. Well, it turns out that his wife Wendy Deng (who is a mere 42 years old) is a vegan. He must have been eating great, healthy food for the last 12 years since he married her. As another pro-vegan I can vouch for the wonders of a near vegan diet and I fully expect Rupert to be impressing me and others for many years to come on the back of it.
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