28 May 2016 – by Deirdre Hipwell
Few tickets are more coveted than those for the opening preview gala night of the Chelsea Flower Show.
This is the event that takes place after the Queen and her entourage have visited the gardens and occurs on the Monday night before the gardens open to the public on Tuesday. It is where, if you are a chief executive, banker or consultant worth your salt, you need to be seen.
This year, I managed to snaffle a ticket. Arriving at the event and walking through the London Gate, I was flanked by Sir John Ritblat on one side and Donald Mackenzie, co-founder and co-chairman of CVC Capital Partners, and Sir Roger Carr, chairman of BAE Systems, on the other side.
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They were just the start of what became, for me at least, a “spot the bigwig” competition and within the first 10 minutes I had spied Stephen Hester, the former boss of RBS and current head of RSA (and a keen gardener); Tidjane Thiam, chief executive of Credit Suisse; and Sir Martin Sorrell.
I may have been imagining it, but Sorrell, the founder and chief executive of advertising and public relations giant WPP, still seemed rather flush with the success of being awarded a £62.8m share package last month – one of the largest pay cheques in British corporate history.
The great and the good were also out with their spouses to view the gardens, with Ritblat rubbing shoulders with Nick Leslau, Chris Grigg from British Land, Ian Hawksworth from Capital & Counties and Chris Ireland, UK chairman of JLL, among others.
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