Global Custodian Spring 2019 | Page 6

[ I N S I D E V I E W | C H A R L I E R U F F E L ] globalcustodian.com Back to where it all started T hree decades ago, from a dingy loft in Tribeca in New York City, the first issue of Global Custodian emerged. On the face of it, it seemed a tenuous idea, but sometimes perseverance wins the day, and perseverance was our strong suit. In 1989, the first substantial wave of cross-border investing was evidencing itself – capital pools across the world were actively seeking diversification outside their own borders. And, as it turned out, it required more than investment managers to make that happen. It required substantial infrastructure – exchanges and depositories that could deal with cross-border settlement, banks in every country to act as agents, forex desks, new international reporting and corporate actions standards, securities lending capa- bilities, and, last but not least, the global banks to coordinate the whole process. Why not, our reasoning went, dedicate a magazine to that? Luck was on our side. The magazine was profitable from the get-go, and we quickly learned the value of surveys – if it moved, we surveyed it. And the trend behind the launch - the surge of cross-border investing - proved secular and gave us the following wind we needed. We also took real pride in the sort of editorial that was increasingly rare even then – long pieces that required extensive reporting and edit space. The best of these were written by long-time editor Dominic Hobson, and he and others gave the magazine an intellectual heft that none of our competitors even aspired to. My own career has taken me from publishing to finance, but the pure fun of launch- ing and making Global Custodian succeed is vivid in my mind. It was pure pleasure from start to finish. The executives in that industry – from a bank CEO in Boston to an agent bank branch manager in Cairo, and the thousands in between that ushered in the age of cross-border investing – were welcoming and transparent. It was then, and remains, a privilege to have told their story. EDITORIAL Managing Editor JONATHAN WATKINS Tel: [phone] [email protected] Deputy Editor JOE PARSONS Tel: [phone] [email protected] Special Projects Editor RICHARD SCHWARTZ Tel: [phone] [email protected] Subscriptions Manager KIKI BUSTOS Tel: [phone] [email protected] Head of Operations KAREN DELAHOY Tel: [phone] [email protected] Contibutors CHARLES GUBERT, CHARLIE RUFFEL DESIGN & PRODUCTION Art Director OLIVIA ROSZKOWSKA Tel: [phone] [email protected] ADVERTISING Advertising Director DALJIT SOKHI Tel: [phone] [email protected] Senior Account Manager MATT ALDRED [phone] [email protected] ADDRESS 20 Little Britain London, UK EC1A 7DH Tel: [phone] Printed by: Warners Midlands PLC SUBSCRIPTION RATES Global Custodian magazine publishes five issues per year. GlobalCustodian.com publishes daily. Annual subscription: $565 - magazine only; $715 - web only; $890 – package. For more information contact [email protected]. Global Custodian is owned and produced by Tungsten Publishing Ltd. ©Tungsten Publishing 2019 No part of this publication may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without written permission from the publisher. Charlie Ruffel Founder Global Custodian 6 Global Custodian Spring 2019