Tour de Cure: ICAP CHARITY DAY

Let me set the scene. The Elevator door opens to the sounds of cheering and music as we walk the narrow corridor following the ICAP sign to reception. Plastic drapes cover the entrance to a room where flashing lights and smoke crept through the cracks of the industrial plastic. You could tell something was going on inside that room…………………….We kept following the signs to reception.
Cosie, Phil and I, dressed in TDC lycra, pushing our bikes through a very corporate corridor felt more than a little out of place. That didn’t last long as we turned the corner to see a hive of colour and characters, yelling and shouting, laughing and winking, roll playing and secretly enjoying their costume choice for the ICAP CHARITY DAY.

In this room, deals worth MILLIONS of dollars were taking place every minute. The most unlikely characters dressed as 1920’s Gangsters, Hari Chrisna’s, Santa, The Spice Girls, Arab Sheiks, Haz Chem cleaners and Scottish Kings were making deals with banks and financial institutions with the profits being shared with 12 other charities on this one day.
ICAP are the biggest broker of its kind in the world however they do have some competitors (none of whom do such

a wonderful thing to help different charities each year). On this charity day the market tends to give most of it’s deals to ICAP knowing that the money goes to a good cause. Last year the ICAP day raised over 7.1millions Pounds Globally ($700k+ Australian) for their chosen charities. We were honoured to be chosen for this years ICAP charity day and in return for our generous inclusion , we have named a team in next years charity ride in their honour.

So here are Cosie, Phil and I, shaved legs and lycra completely unsure of what our roll was on this day. In the room when we arrived were the following slightly recognisable characters. Steve Waugh, Dr Charlie Teo (Brain Surgeon), Jonathon Coleman, David Peachey and a couple of others whose name I don’t remember from the tabloids. Each

charity was asked to provide a celeb or 2 on the day to walk the floor and help close the deals with customers on the phone. As you can imagine Steve Waugh was constantly on the phone closing plenty of deals for the charities on this day . Nice work Steve!

Our sponsor in to the ICAP Charity Day is Tasman Lovell (ICAP Director and great bloke). Watching Tom orchestrate his team, push his guys to make the deals, massage some numbers in our favour, having complete control over 4 or 5 deals at any one time was amazing to watch. These guys talk at a hundred miles an hour with Millions rolling of the tongue like its change from the supermarket. We soon learnt that the louder you yell and getting eye contact with the other dealer meant you got your client in the hot seat. We also learnt that a YARD is equivalent to a BILLION Dollars……………………OMG! Phil the textile king from Verosol Blinds has a new found respect for the word Yard, as would most

Unfortunately we missed the 10am rates announcement which is the time when banks and investment funds, hedge against the pending change in the rate. We can only imagine just how frenetic the atmosphere was for those first few minutes.

The afternoon session 3pm – 4.30pm saw Maximus, The Mayor, Stiffler and I join the ICAP traders for a couple of cheeky beers as the trading continued until the market closed at 4.30. The jokes got dirtier and thanks to Mrs Clause (Aka Natalie from another Charity) the ICAP team kept up their en

deavours to make every deal matter on this day. Stroke of genius bring Mrs Clause to help close the deals. I think Mrs Clause and Steve Waugh single handedly raised the most money on the day! Not sure if Mrs Clause will be telling Santa just how many times she was invited out for some eggnog and cookies at the CBD bar that night.

A massive thanks to Hugh Gallagher, Mark Benfield, Tasman Lovell and Michelle Cheevers for not only including the Tour de Cure as a charity of choice on this day but also for allowing us to share in the excitement of the day on the trading floor with the ICAP team.
As you can see from the picture there was no room for the quiet on this day. For more pics from the day go to Http//charityday.icap.com.au
ICAP set a new record this year raising a whopping $9.2million POUNDS on it’s Charity Day. That’s up from the $7.1million pounds it raised in 2006……………..AMAZING!