Yves de Contades

Aston Martin teamed up with engineering group Prodrive in 2004 to get Aston Martin back into racing with the DBR9 and they have been very very successful promoting some of the best driving talent around such as Darren Turner. They also have Bruno Senna, David Hannson, Pedro Lamy and Alex MacDowall on the team! Darren Turner won the Le Mans in 2007 and in 2008, a celebrated double . Aston Martin has also been a major presence at the Nürburgring, Spa and Silverstone this year with Darren on the podium for the 6 Hours of Silverstone.
Darren Turner races for Aston Martin

‘Masterpiece’ is a very apt title for arguably the most impressive exhibition following on in late June in the Royal Hospital Gardens from the Chelsea Flower Show; it now has its place in the ‘English Summer season’ as it has assumed the status of the former Grosvenor Fair.
 

International eXcellence attended a small soiree last night at the Groucho Club hosted by Vestra Wealth and Alain de Botton from the School of Life. Now at first glance it may seem an odd marriage to team a philosophy/psychology school with a wealth company, but it is without doubt a very good idea indeed.

Five Days In Paradise For Lovers Of The Highlife

Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced the winners of the Lipper Fund Awards 2014 UK. The Lipper Fund Awards are part of the Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence, a global family of awards that celebrate exceptional performance throughout the professional investment community.
 
Franklin Templeton Investments and Jyske Invest collected the top Group Awards. The full list of Group Award winners include:
 
Winner
Group Award
Franklin Templeton Investments

This Time it’s Personal. It Really is All About You
The future of advertising, really the future of all business, social interaction, our quality of life and learning is about to be governed by algorithms. Rubbish I hear you say, we are in control of our lives, decisions, learning and future. Well, not for long unless we look very carefully at how we structure the internet and our collection of personal data over the next few years and tailor the code, that will soon run much of it, with an eye to ethics and quality of life over personal gain.

LAUNCHES, LIQUIDATIONS, AND MERGERS IN THE EUROPEAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY, Q4 2013
Executive Summary
As of the end of December 2013 there were 31,724 mutual funds registered for sale in Europe. Luxembourg continued to dominate the fund market in Europe, hosting 8,617 funds, followed by France, where 4,797 funds were domiciled. For Q4 2013, 521 funds were created in Europe. During the same period 585 funds were liquidated and 337 were merged.

International eXCellence Magazine interviews Lee Robertson of Investment Quorum, Award Winning Wealth Management Firm.
 -What is your background and education?
 

Fitch Ratings-London-17 February 2014: Results from Fitch Ratings' 1Q14 European fixed income investor survey show that investors are more bullish on eurozone fundamentals. Only around one-third are concerned about a prolonged recession derailing credit markets - the lowest reading in almost three years. Only one-quarter said fundamentals would worsen for developed market sovereigns, down sharply since October. Nevertheless, deflation concerns have risen to their highest level since 2010.

Kicking Horse: A resort that lives up to its name.
No helicopters are needed to ski over 30,000 vertical feet a day by any social skier whose nerves hold firm.  as he or she will enjoy of the most challenging skiing they will probably ever experience.  There are some 85 ‘chutes’ in Kicking Horse, I would use the more appropriate word ‘drops’ for most runs.  Most of these runs are largely accessed by a single summit gondola lift, a shorter chair ‘Stairway to Heaven’ opens up further breathtaking runs, lift queues are rare.