City Diary: Give Gatwick boss a one-way ticket to China, say Sussex MPs

Posted on by Listify Me

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How the mighty have fallen. Off the wagon, that is.

When Diary caught up with Ronan Dunne, the CEO of O2 Telefonica UK, at a
recent media dinner, he announced he was off the booze for November as part
of a “health kick”.

Sadly, the telecoms chief’s clean-living drive is already on hold. At the
weekend, Mr Dunne posted a snap of himself outside a Dublin pub on Twitter,
complete with a Guinness montage (below). As the Ireland vs Australia Autumn
International rugby match kicked off, he was apparently making “final
preparations before the big game”.

Of course, if BT’s
current talks to buy O2 go through, Diary won’t begrudge Mr Dunne a few
shandies.

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Some people just don’t want an easy life. Redleaf Polhill, the City PR outfit
that until recently represented Quindell, the current bête noir of London’s
Aim market, has taken on media duties for the £10m
placing and IPO of Constellation Healthcare Technologies (CHT).

The man behind the soon-to-be Aim-listed US company is Paul Parmar, who is an
interesting fellow. In his spare time, the CHT chief executive runs a tiger
rehabilitation centre in Texas.

He explains on his website: “There
was a tremendous need to provide a refuge for tigers that people had as pets
in their houses, and then do not have the means or space to care for them.”

But things haven’t always been purring along so nicely for the self-made
financier who once said “what recession?” as he rode on his private jet. In
2011, Deutsche Bank put Mr Parmar’s James Bond-esque compound in New Jersey
up for auction by the county sheriff, after certain of his businesses had
“run into difficulties”.

For the sake of CHT’s broker, FinnCap, let’s hope the tiger tamer’s latest
business adventure doesn’t come back to bite.

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Oil baron Lord Browne, global diplomat Kofi Annan and ex-PM John Major were
among the penguin suits on parade at the annual awards run by the policy
institute Chatham House last Friday night.

But they were no match for Melinda Gates, the billionaire businesswoman and
philanthropist, who followed Hillary Clinton by winning the Chatham House
Prize 2014 for the person deemed to have made the most significant
contribution to the improvement of international relations over the past
year.

“Melinda Gates put everyone else in the shade,” says an impressed source at
London’s Banqueting House. Bill who?

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Vicky Pryce, the economist shamed for accepting speeding points on behalf of
ex-husband Chris Huhne, is back in the dock today. This time, though, it
won’t result in a
nine-week spell in jail.

Tonight, Ms Pryce will share the witness stand with criminal solicitor Nick
Freeman, aka “Mr Loophole”, in a charity debate in London called: “Are
Celebrities Above the Law?”

Freeman cut his teeth defending famous faces such as the tax-efficient
football boss Sir Alex Ferguson and the tax-efficient comedian Jimmy Carr.
But his “personal view” is that celebrities are “certainly not above the
law”. No further questions, Your Honour.

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harriet.dennys@telegraph.co.uk

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