A true renaissance man is about to hit the Australian corporate boardroom scene.
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The hedge fund veteran Todd Ruppert, will be joining the board of tech start-up CSB Engage when it lists on the ASX via a backdoor listing through Waratah Resources.
The company, which specialises in customer engagement and loyalty services, will be called Mobecom and forms part of a global web of interests for Ruppert.
"I have an enormous appetite to pursue a lot of different, intellectually challenging things on a global scale - my many interests are just different pieces of a puzzle. I am on the boards of companies in China, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, France - all over," he told the Financial Times in 2014.
"The key link between these companies is that they are disrupters. Disrupters are led by people who are visionaries."
Ruppert said much the same about his Mobecom role when speaking to the local press this month.
But Ruppert didn't leave the high pressure world of finance to dabble in a range of business disrupters.
He is on the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was a co-producer of Happy Days - The Musical, which one critic described as "a powerhouse rock and roll trip down memory lane".
But Ruppert's interests don't end there.
He served as executive producer of three documentary films: A Year in Burgundy, A Year in Champagne and A Year in Port.
The latter in the trilogy is one of three finalists for movie of the year at the James Beard Awards, which have been described as the Oscars of food and wine.
And if he is looking for some distractions in the run-up to the award ceremony next month, Waratah Resources is expected to release a notice of meeting any day now to usher in the changes.
In the meantime, Ruppert might have time to consider a new movie: A Year in Bundaberg Rum.
Premiership coup
While it wasn't the score line the Sydney Swans wanted on Saturday afternoon at the SCG, when they went down to Port Adelaide, it was a small victory for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
He, first lady Lucy, and an entourage, hosted Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in the SCG Trustee suites.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull share a joke at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Photo: Getty Images
A new chapter was added to the government's troubles with South Australia when Port Adelaide Football Club president David Koch managed to get a Port scarf draped over Li's shoulders.
The Swans fans did their ritual booing of the PM, but then one of the Sydney faithful threw a Swans scarf up, which the PM grabbed with aplomb and draped over Li to cover the Port turquoise.
Kochie tried to wrangle the Port scarf over the top, but CBD's spy disguised as a goal post, noticed some heavy Chinese security placed a hand on the Premier's shoulder to stop such scarf shenanigans.
AFL is becoming big business in China, with Port Adelaide and the Gold Coast Suns scheduled to play the first AFL game for premiership points on Sunday, May 14, in Shanghai.
???What the visitors made of the rules, we can only speculate.
AFL chairman and former Rio Tinto board member, Mike Fitzpatrick, was also keeping Malcolm company in the suite and would, no doubt, have been swapping tips with Li.
All that Gas
There's a lot to love about AGL boss Andy Vesey.
This is the man who landed on our shores to head AGL in 2015 to find a company in turmoil. He soon made peace with the greenies - kind of - by pulling out of the gas production business and set AGL on a path towards a renewable-friendly future.
SA Premier Jay Weatherill, AGL CEO Andy Vesey and homeowner Geoff Perkins. Photo: Simon Evans
Who would have thought his most public embarrassment would come in 2017 compliments of two politicians - a South Australian Premier and federal minister, no less - who would use his press conference as a mud wrestling pit for Australia's self-inflicted energy crisis.
ABC's The Weekly made fun of Vesey's attempt at playing dead while Premier Jay Wetherill and Minister Josh Frydenberg duked it out at the press conference that was meant to highlight AGL's Virtual Power Plant strategy in Adelaide.
"Not dead, just imagining a time when Virtual Power Plants are so common we don't do press conferences about them," quipped Vesey in a tweet on Friday.
Not dead, just imagining a time when Virtual Power Plants are so common we don't do press conferences about them https://t.co/VFOiQjmhRJ??? Andy Vesey (@AndyVesey_AGL) March 23, 2017
How could those AGL investors quibble about his $6 million-plus remuneration package last year and launch a first strike against the utility's remuneration report?
