Colin Bell gone but not forgotten

Illustration: Peter Nicholson

This is a public service announcement: does anyone know the whereabouts of Colin Bell?

The Melbourne-based doyen of Australian stockbroking — who founded Bell Commodities in 1970 — last made contact before heading into a meeting on Friday.

“I’m just heading into a meeting,” Colin told us before hanging up.

We haven’t been able to get the 74-year-old on the phone since. After the alarming rainfall along the eastern seaboard, you’ll understand our concern.

Colin’s disappearance follows a dramatic few weeks for the old school financial operator.

Two weeks ago to the day, the executive chairman of Bell ­Financial received a phone call from Shayne Elliott, the boss of ANZ, the bank that has a $100 million facility with Colin’s Bell Potter.

That unhappy phone call took place later in the day that Colin’s former employee, Angus Aitken, had written a sharply worded note about Elliott’s newly appointed chief financial officer, Michelle Jablko, best known as an investment banker at UBS and then boutique shop Greenhill.

Aitken’s employment at Bell Potter ended soon after that call.

Colin Bell in his Melbourne office, earlier this year. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian.

So, naturally, we want to hear from Colin about what Elliott said to him a fortnight ago. And, of course, what Colin then said to Aitken.

Was Aitken — who had a run-in with Greg Medcraft’s tough cop on the beat ASIC in December — on a final notice at Bell? And was it the tone of his note that got him in trouble? That seems a weak excuse for a brokerage.

Or was it the later involvement of Elliott’s communications guy, Paul Edwards, on Twitter? Seems a stretch.

Or was it a threat from Elliott about Bell’s facility with his bank? That would be exciting.

Or did Bell make the decision in a less than perfect state of mind? We have heard that the call from Elliott found Colin in Hong Kong on a trip celebrating a friend’s 50th with an entourage that included Sydney socialite Skye Leckie.

If that’s correct, we would love to know at what stage in the night out in Hong Kong did the call from Elliott arrive? Was Colin at Stormies, the bar the endangered Member for Mayo Jamie Briggs put on the map over the summer? The mind boggles.

So please write in if you have sighted Colin. There’s so much to talk about.

Up the creek

Something’s up at Riverstone Advisory, the corporate advisory firm founded by Nick Curtis.

Nick Curtis supported his son Oliver at St James Road court.

Curtis’s son Oliver was found guilty of insider trading on Thursday afternoon. Until then, Oli was employed at his dad’s shop — although, if we’re being honest, no one has ever explained to us exactly what he did there.

Maybe Oli’s importance to the firm was underestimated. With the high-profile employee seemingly destined for more time in Silverwater prison than Sydney’s CBD, the firm’s future looks precarious.

Its website has been pulled in the days following the Supreme Court conviction. And when we stopped by its offices yesterday, we couldn’t see its signage. Riverstone appears to have been rebranded HHK Advisory.

Former Riverstone employees Kevin Hobgood-Brown and Shirley Gao are both working under the new HHK banner. Harold Wang — once an employee at the rare-earths miner Lynas that Curtis chaired — is also on board, according to its perfunctory website.

As to Curtis’s role in the new outfit? That’s about as clear to us as exactly what Riverstone Advisory had been doing since 2012, the year of the most recent mandate that was advertised on its now inactive website.

Busy bee

There’s no sign that Oliver Curtis’s businesswoman wife Roxy Jacenko plans to postpone her social media business seminar.

That’s the one held on the same day that Curtis — before this case best known for bringing the mullet to Sydney private school Riverview — is scheduled to be sentenced for his crime on June 17.

Jacenko’s steadfastness to the event at the Shangri La Hotel on Friday week is perhaps a sign that hubby is planning to appeal the NSW Supreme Court verdict. Either way, it shows commendable loyalty to her followers and sponsors.

Roxy Jacenko. Picture: AAP/Dean Lewins.

One business associate who won’t be there is Vocation co-founder Brett Whitford, who has been a supporter of Jacenko’s in the past.

The pair connected over work she’s done for his Pink Salt restaurant, which is at the foot of her Sweaty Betty PR offices in Double Bay.

Whitford was a sponsor of Jacenko’s last seminar series, but this time has not given any cash.

He says the pair had subsequent conversations about business opportunities, but they came to nothing.

Whitford told us he was sympathetic to Jacenko’s circumstances.

“Her and I had a friendship and my thoughts are with her and her children at this difficult time,” he said.

Jacenko’s business is run from offices that are rented from Nutrimetics millionaires turned property developers Bill and Imelda Roche (one of Gina Rinehart’s closest girlfriends), while the apartment that she rents with Curtis in the king tide-ravaged Bondi is owned by movie producer turned developer Rebel Penfold-Russell, who was executive producer of the Hugo Weaving-vehicle The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Cheese on toast

Media, truck and gas scion Ryan Stokes was at Rockpool Bar and Grill yesterday. Sadly, for visiting gossip writers at least, he was with business associates, not his new fiancee Claire Campbell(the 31-year-old director of ­family-owned footwear business Maryon’s Shoes).

Ryan Stokes with finacee Claire Campbell.

Instead the glamour in the Monday lunch crowd at Neil Perry’s eatery was provided by star of ICAC Geoffrey “Hollywood” Watson.

Also along, Nihal Gupta (the businessman who briefly chaired Michael Ebeid’s public broadcaster, SBS), who was breaking bread with Gerard Henderson’s son-in-law Warren Mundine.

Just strummin’

It’s not a violin. It’s not a Tommy Gun.

The thing in the little case that Labor’s shadow finance minister Tony Burke is hauling around the nation’s airports is a travel guitar: half the size of a standard model, with all six strings.

And, best of all, it fits into a Qantas or Virgin overhead compartment.

Just the thing to help a Coldplay fan get through a marathon election campaign.

So what does Burke play? “The current affairs shows are broadcast without a backing track, so I try to fix that.”

Interesting. Sounds like something for 7:30 host, podcaster and celebrated pianist Leigh Sales to make use of next time Burke appears on her show.

Tony Burke showed his good rythm at the White Ribbon March in Lakemba. Picture: Jonathan Ng.