Pembroke: An Eye on the future

A WHOLE new world is opening up for Samantha Phillips, the former Willis Corroon broker who won her unfair dismissal case last week. We have already had a Sunday newspaper feature ('How men nearly broke me, by 'Bimbo' case girl') and an appearance on GMTV yesterday morning.

Now publishers are said to be interested in a book of her story and the telegenic former broker says she is negotiating with a TV company about a job presenting women's issues. A slot on breakfast television seems likely. 'I'm very interested in the woman's role in the working community and doing some campaigning in an informal way,' she says.

Ms Phillips is also planning to expand her publishing business beyond the Lloyd's insurance newsletter, Inside Eye. A new export magazine is in the pipeline for Christmas.

THEY have already achieved celebrity status over at Winterflood Gilts, the new firm started yesterday by Brian Winterflood. Day one and they were on the southern French radio station Riviera Radio. 'They wanted a comment on the gilts market,' mumbles director Adrian Ireland. 'That was my first media sound bite . . . and my last.'

AT SALOMON Brothers in New York, Bill McIntosh, head of the fixed-income department, has a sign on his office door that reads SACOTU, which we are reliably informed stands for 'Supreme Allied Commander of the Universe.'

But the gung-ho plaque, an apparent reference to the bond trading yuppies in Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, might have to be altered, as Mr McIntosh will now share responsibility for the firm's faltering bond division with Dennis Keegan, head of Salomon in London for 10 years.

The promotion makes Mr Keegan second only to the chief executive, Deryck Maughan. Certainly a master of the universe, if not its supreme allied commander.

THERE was an impromptu change to the lighting arrangements at Midland Bank's interim results meeting yesterday. Halfway through and the lights dimmed, as if for a slide presentation, then came up again. The chairman, Sir William Purves, was seen shooting a withering look towards his PR men at the back of the room. One of them had leant on the light switch by mistake.

IF PETER Davis is stuck for ideas on places to invest his thumping pay-off from Reed Elsevier, he might take a look at a stately pile near Perth. According to a glossy brochure from the agent Brodies, the small matter of pounds 1.3m would secure the Glenearn estate, a not-so-small castle, fort, trout loch and 725 acres. The estate is for the patriotic. The loch was dug in the shape of the British Isles (Scotland is now a marsh). And the woods planted in the shape of the British regiments at Waterloo.