BNP Paribas FIG syndicator Damian Saunders is approaching his 10 year anniversary at the firm, and is surely the youngest man in banking worthy of the title of ‘veteran’, having previously spent 10 years at Commerzbank (just a few more years and he’ll be a ‘guru’).
There have been questions over Saunders’ temperament of late — he recently decided not to ride the 100 mile Prudential Ride London cycle sportive because it was raining — but he was able to emphatically answer his critics on a trip to watch the England cricket team destroy India at the Oval.
With our man distracted by the tourists’ batting collapse, a wasp was able to gain entry to his rather fetching polo shirt and sting him, “right on the nipple”. Blog can only take Damian’s word for the exact location of the sneak attack, but it can vouch for his coolness under pressure.
With minimal high pitched yelping and hand flapping — though plenty of expert polo shirt flapping — the wasp was quickly despatched and an unflappable Saunders was then able to strike up a discussion with clearly frightened onlookers as to whether swapping the wasp for a bee would have been better or worse. He even managed to keep hold of his pint of ale during the 10-15 second ordeal. If a demeanor like that isn’t made for a high pressure syndicate environment, we don’t know what is.
