TEA Times - 'Finking' Forward, Being Prudential... And Co Sec's Got Talent!
☕NextGen individual investor insights for the City. TEA Cup Honours the 'Pru crew' led by Patrick Bowes and Tom Clarkson for their impactful IR & retail engagement. Plus: Co Secs, Art & The City.
👋 Welcome to Today’s TEA Times
Bringing you a breather from the chaos (aka ‘the markets’), with a strong brew of insight for the everyday investor. Because frankly, between the doomscrolling, financial fear porn, and political theatre that makes no sense even with subtitles — our brains are scrambled.
So this edition? Think of it as the Sabrina Carpenter of newsletters: short, sweet, and packing a punch. Espresso vibes only.
For the uninitiated: I’m Sheryl C from TEA (yes, like the hot drink, and yes, we spill it weekly ☕️). We translate retail shareholder engagement into a language that doesn’t require a CFA or a decoder ring. And while today’s tone may skew a bit ‘seasoned millennial’ (hi, I’m Gen X), we usually lean into the lingo of our Gen Zennial fam. Because let’s face it: finance needs a rebrand.
So, why retail shareholder engagement?
Because surprise — we’re all retail shareholders. Directors, employees, your mate who’s obsessed with ISA hacks… everyone. And while the City often dismisses this crowd as ‘dumb money’ or ‘too much admin,’ when push comes to hostile activism or takeover shove, guess who gets called up from the bench? Yep. Retail shareholders.
Direct retail shareholders hold 11% of UK equities — and possibly 90% of the common sense left in the room. We’ve got the pounds and the potential to help revive UK capital markets. It’s time we had a voice. Watch this late night ‘TEA with Sheryl C’ video for more.
So we’re doubling down — research, events, teach-ins, the works. If you haven’t already, subscribe. Or forward this to your mate who thinks investing is just for institutions.
In This Edition:
💥 Market Splash
Trump trade wars, Larry Fink going full Shakespeare, and finfluencers calling out the chaos with vibes and charts. Yes, BlackRock’s CEO is now Gen Z’s unlikely hero. Who saw that coming? For our next newsletter, we’re thinking that the UK equivalent of Uncle Larry could be Standard Chartered’s CEO, Bill Winters. Find out why we are thinking this in next week’s TEA Times.
🏆 TEA Cup Honours
After the love-fest for Lucy Bond of Man Group (totally deserved), this week’s TEA Cups honours the ‘crew from the Pru’ — aka Prudential’s top-tier IR and Co Sec squad led by Patrick Bowes and Tom Clarkson. Effective, efficient, elegant no-nonsense excellence. We see you.
TEA Cups is TEA’s latest initiative that recognises exceptional individuals and collectives in the area of engagement. Our selection process is entirely independent, research- and observation-based, and supported by a growing network of governance professionals, individual investors and TEA’s Gen Zennial Ambassadors. DM TEACups@teaxall.org for more info.
🎭 World of Co Secs Meets Art & The City
Turns out corporate types can shred too. Meet Maddie Cordes — company secretary by day, choir queen, talent agent and theatre producer by night. Honestly, what can’t she do? Check out the play that she has helped to stage here - playing this Thursday 10th and Sunday 13th at the Astor Theatre in Deal. I’m going on Sunday. Join me?
PLUS: Did you know that Dr Sabine Dembkowski, the Founder of one of TEA’s partners, BetterBoards, is a top 3 corporate governance podcaster on Spotify? Yes that’s right governance is 🔥hot! Take a listen here. Sabine is always on the look out for boardroom governance talents to invite on her show. If you’re interested in guesting, do leave a comment or DM us on info@teaxall.org.
🧐 Governance + ES
BP’s Chair is out due to Elliott’s activism. Also: are you really sustainable if Amazon or SHEIN are your love language? Asking for a friend (and 41k LinkedIn readers, apparently).
💸 NEDs Matter
Being a non-exec director sounds glamorous until you realise it’s all responsibility, crap pay (at least for investment trust NEDs), and a LinkedIn bio full of liabilities. Time to rethink the deal?
Market Splash – Tale of Two Boomers and the Markets
Two boomers walk into a macroeconomy. One raises tariffs (hi, Trump). The other pens a heartfelt letter on democracy and tokenisation (hey, Larry). Only one gets retweeted by Gen Z.
🧠 Finking Forward
Larry Fink’s annual letter? Low-key iconic. He’s giving ‘crypto-sympathetic elder’ with a deep dive into investor democracy, digitisation, and capital markets history that didn’t put us to sleep.
His pro-tokenisation stance? A chef’s kiss moment for those tired of Boomers waging war on crypto.
🪙 Enter: The Boomer Coin
Bitcoin — once dismissed as ‘magic internet money’ — is holding firm while everything else bleeds deep red. Gold’s down. Stocks? Wobbling. But BTC? Holding court like it owns the place.
Might be time to rebrand it from ‘boomer coin’ to ‘boomer-proof coin.’ See chart below from last week. Can you tell which one represents the 500 largest corporations in the US and which one is crypto? I’m told not to talk too much about Bitcoin as it annoys traditionalists. So, I’ll zip it for now. Not financial advice, just vibes.
🧘 Meanwhile, in Gen X-land
Sir Keir’s playing diplomatic footsie. Mark Carney’s forming an Avengers-style trade coalition. Xi’s tossing back tariffs like tequila shots. And investors? They’re either panic-selling or sunbathing, per Bloomberg’s John Stepek.
Ackman’s channeling Joker energy: ‘Convince them you’re crazy.’ And honestly, it’s working. But even Bill’s sweating now.
When will the bottom hit? Could be a V-shaped miracle (Covid crash style). Or not. Depends which YouTuber you ask. We’ve rounded up a few hot takes:
🎖 TEA Cup Honours: Prudential plc – Progressive Investor Engagement Champions
Your girl has now got stakes in 1,400+ UK-listed companies. Goal: attend every AGM possible before my knees give out. Why? Because face time with boards = the real influencer work.
This week’s TEA Cup shoutout? The IR & Co Sec legends at Prudential plc — who hosted a hybrid AGM with actual care and class.
I emailed my questions. They answered every single one — on the record, on the livestream, no filter. Tom Clarkson, Patrick Bowes, and the team? Absolute MVPs.
Baroness Vadera chaired like the pro she is, but let’s be real: good board engagement doesn’t happen without a backstage crew prepping slides, managing inboxes, and keeping the Chair’s coffee hot.
They didn’t just stop at a hybrid AGM — they followed it up with a dedicated retail shareholder event in the UK despite their Asia-focused strategy. Inclusivity in action. And that’s what we’re here for.
Fun fact: I worked with Patrick back in the M&G demerger days, and he’s always been a class act. Sharp, empathetic, strategic. Combine that with Tom’s governance chops and you’ve got a dream team.
So, Pru people: hats off, cups up. You’ve earned this.
Watch out for our full tribute in an upcoming post and on our social media.
🎭 Co Sec’s Got Talent! WoCoS x Art & The City
I’ve always admired the unsung heroes driving governance forward - that’s why I founded WoCoS seven years ago. This week, I discovered one of our own has serious artistic flair! Madeleine (Maddie) Cordes, a highly respected company secretary, is also a gifted singer, musician, and choir leader. She teaches music, has worked as a talent agent, and recently assistant-produced an Agthatha Christie play, Murder in the Studio, showing at the Astor Theatre in Deal this Thursday 10th and Sunday 13th. Tickets are nearly gone - I’m thrilled to have mine for Sunday! Grab yours here. The creative streak continues at home: her husband Gary, a lawyer, is starring in and directing the play, and their son Tobias is an up-and-coming actor. Maddie proves that corporate and creative brilliance can go hand in hand.
Are you a co sec or other corporate type who also has hidden talents? If so, we want to hear from you as part of our Art and the City x WoCoS program. DM us on info@teaxall.org. Look out for more info in our next newsletter and socials.
📢 Governance Gab & ES Reality Checks
We see that BP is saying ‘bye bye’ to its current Chair, Helge Lund, in another display of shareholder activism in action - this time in the form of hedge fund, Elliott. On the ES, i.e., environmental- and social-front, let’s talk ‘sinners and sustainability’. How many of you consider yourselves responsible, but order from Amazon or the likes SHEIN? May I call you to afternoon TEA to discuss? Dates to follow and details.
If one orders from the said companies, does that mean one is not responsible? This is the kind of question I’ve found myself asking after a recent experience that I shared in this LinkedIn post, which has had 41,000 organic impressions! This high level of social media traction clearly spells the importance of this debate, especially given expecations of SHEIN’s listing in the London Stock Exchange later this year.
💼 NEDs: The Underpaid Overachievers?
Gosh being a non-executive director is hard! Little or no pay - for huge responsibilities, personal liabilities, high demands and more and more new skills needed. So, perhaps rather controversially, at the recent AGMs of Edinburgh Worldwide on 14 February, and Herald Investment Trust on 24 March, I questioned the suitability of the current remuneration of the non-executive directors of the companies, who have each been subject to aggressive shareholder activism, that is expected to continue. Extraordinary circumstances, such as activism, takoevers (whether hostile or not) and other corporate actions require more work, time and specific skills from NEDs.
TEA is continuing our reasearch in this matter and will release more info soon. In the meantime, see my starter on the subject which I posted on LinkedIn. Please do see the comments, and feel free to add yours. Also see the Tik Tok video below that I created — to imagine if NEDs had to work at McDonald’s. Thankfully things haven’t gotten to that point yet for the board of Herald, who became the inspiration for this Tik Tok after I attended their AGM.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
That’s it for this round of TEA.
Be well, stay curious, and remember: the market may be messy, but at least we’ve got memes.
✌️
Sheryl C & the TEA Team