User:AndrewGWalsh007/sandbox

thinkFolio Limited

A company founded by Christine Mander, Gary Ellis and Andrew Walsh on the 28th of April 2001. Shannon Gwon needs a mention.

thinkFolio was different in many ways, and so were the people who worked there. Honest endeavour. Kindness. Respect. A lot of cake.

Aside from the founders, the people who worked there were:

Marco Maddalena

Matthew York

Campbell Wild

Michael Markham

Jill Haynes

Laurence Beine

Ciara Mangan

Adriaan Mostert

Caroline Bayley (nee ???)

Emma Hudson

Paul Whelan

Steve Warner

Sue Bingham

Mike Carragher

Garry Donegan

Wayne Leong

Rob Hubbard

John Wrigglesworth needs a mention

Steve Cage did occasional work on contract

Robert Powell worked on contract

rFur Bear needs a mention

Send-a-bear...

Initially without an office, thinkFolio moved into Unity Wharf, Mill Street and then Tempus Wharf, 29a Bermondsey Wall West, SE16 4SA.

Meetings were eschewed.

A monthly development meeting was held.

Customers were given customer numbers

Axa, BNP, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Wellcome Trust, Lehman Brothers (Neuberger Bermann) ??
 * 1) Partners Asset Management (later Stratton Street)
 * 2) Avebury Asset Management
 * 3) Charles Taylor Investment Management
 * 4) Investec Asset Management
 * 5) Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch
 * 6) Aegon Asset Management
 * 7) Julius Baer
 * 8) Merrill Lynch.

System was written in Visual Basic, SQL Server.

Releases were initially made ad hoc, then monthly and finally every two months.

A customer website was instituted where customer requests were posted and worked on.

A Christmas party was held every year - these got quite posh as time went on. Presents were given to the partners of all staff in slight recompense for them never seeing their partners.

A Christmas lunch was held each year for the CIOs of the customers.

A summer party was held every year for all customers at the thinkFolio office, champagne was drunk, food was served by Zafferano.

Salaries were the same.

Bonuses were the same.

Shareholdings were different.

All staff had an equity stake which was allocated on joining and gifted by the company.

The company accountant was Jeffrey Allerton of (name before Roger Slater & Co)

The company lawyer was Mark Bailey of Speechly Bircham (now Charles Russell Speechlys - CRS.)

thinkFolio was sold on January 14th 2014 to Markit for £55 million. 20 people worked for thinkFolio at the time of the sale. 50 odd customers were extent at the time of the sale including: Axa, BNP, Neuberger Bermann, ???