Join the Debate

Search

Post Your Resume

 

Print

How important is a highly attractive, high functioning spouse?

Jun 29 2009

Following the eulogy to the fragrant Diane Jenkins in the weekend Telegraph, it’s worth revisiting the contribution that Diane has allegedly made to the career of husband Roger Jenkins, the executive chairman of Barclays Investment Banking and Investment Management for the Middle East.

Diane, a Bosnian who met Jenkins while at City University, is rumoured to have had a role in endearing Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani to him. The Sheikh, who manages the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, bought a 15% stake in Barclays earlier this year, enabling the bank to reject an investment from the British government.

Although Diane is something of a socialite, the Jenkinses, the Sheikh and his wife apparently enjoy quiet nights in eating lamb and pasta for four at home.

Now that client relationships are resurgent, are alpha spouses mandatory for success in banking? Or can you still get by with someone who reheats ready meals and thinks Botox is a character from Asterix?

Comments (32)

An alpha male beast wouldn't be partnered with a hippo...or vice versa. A tiger needs a tigeress.

View all comments

Bookmark

  • Blinklist.com
  • Reddit.com
  • Digg.com
  • Furl.com
  • Google.com
  • Del.icio.us
  • Yahoo.com
  • Netscape.com
  • Stumbleupon.com

Comments (32)

  • I'll second that last post. Are Anon and Nikky the only people over 16 on this board?

    Beast 11 Jul 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • As side from the last comment by Anon , you all have completely lost the plot. Anyone who ends up with their spouse purely for monetary gain will find out that when things go bad, their fair weather spouse will go along as well.

    Nikky 08 Jul 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • Thinking botox is a character from Asterix is definitely a positive attribute. :-)

    Liam 07 Jul 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • I am a high profile deal maker in a Large bank (still have my job). I personally make it  a point not to socialise and make sure even if I have to be in such boring so called personal relationship meetings, never bring up my family life or my business associates' personal lives

    my business associates know that i am there for business like i know they are for business - if we can get together to make money so be it - personal lives are too private to be touched/meddled

    Bringing in personal relationship equations in businesses mean

    1. the parties are insecure
    2. one of the two parties is about to get ripped off
    3. somone is doing a favour out of their way so their ego need to be massaged or they need to be given false sense of importance
    4. Building business on a spouse's flirting capacity is SHAMEFUL - there is another undesirable name to those kind of tactics
    5. Nobody business associate is important enought to invade my personal space

    genuine friendships during a course of business are all together different

    anon 04 Jul 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 1 time | Alert Moderator

  • I quite like the asian variety of spouse (regular, not pygmy).  Very subservient I am told......

    PEDirector 01 Jul 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • Apologies for making a serious comment, but it might be interesting to know how the high profile spouses got their interesting, well-paid and high profile roles in the first place. Nothing to do with nepotism, I'm sure.

    Secondly, don't knock those hippos. An Alpha hippo (male or female) is a dangerous beast, from which any tiger would run (and for the pedants among you of course this would be a theoretical confrontation as I'm obviously talking about African hippos and not the pygmy Asian variety).

    Roger 01 Jul 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • ZLTE017-Havent you got some filing to do? And then coffees to get?

    bc 01 Jul 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • All things being equal, yes, it makes a difference!

    stephanie 01 Jul 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • Never turn up to a function with a heifer. Its career suicide.

    Arnie 30 Jun 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • Are the people on here for real?? Seriously It's like I'm stuck in a bad episode of the twilight zone, surrounded by mindless dimwits. This message board seems to reflect where society seems to be heading nowadays - communism -  where independent thinkers and beliefs are vilified by the power of the mindless mob...Ayn Rand would be turning in her grave now at how the idiot is championed in society and the  ambitious, driven, intelligent visionaries like me are attacked. But zlte017 is a winner and never forget it...Toodlepip!!!

    ZLTE017 30 Jun 2009

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

Add your comment

* Mandatory

You have 1200 characters left

Enter the code shown here or sign in / register to skip this step. (What is this?)

Post comment

Jobs

More jobs

Col3
Col4
Col5
Col6
bottom

Site Information

eFinancialCareers is a Dice Holdings, Inc. company. Dice Holdings, Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: DHX)