Unpublished Interview

Tell us a bit about yourself

I grew up in Islington, North London, spending only three years away from the borough and the capital in 1988 when my family moved to Broadstairs and Ramsgate in Kent which are south east of London and we lived on the coast in a Fishermans cottage on the picturesque Union Square only ten seconds from the beach some of my happiest memories are of my friends and living in a small town. We left Broadstairs and moved back to London in 1990 and back to the borough of Islington where I attended school.

I used to read different types of books as a hobby from the age of seven, it was science fiction and natural history which kept me thrilled at an early age, yet just a hobbyist, at the age of nineteen my mother called me into the kitchen and handed me a newspaper clipping all about Sir Damon Buffini and his rise from humble roots to the founder of Permira a global investment firm explaining how he had become extremely successful as a businessman from relatively humble roots.

Being mixed race, I didn’t see many figures I could look up to apart from Damian Buffini and there are now many like Alex Karp, Sheila Johnson, Emma Grede, Steven Bartlett etc, albeit there we’re many on the European / American side like Sir Richard Branson and James Dyson etc and in this day and age there are now also more black business notables that young black people can look up to like Robert F. Smith, Mike Adenuga, Aliko Dangote, Eddie C. Brown etc, it was that particular article on Sir Damon Buffini which made me go on to study business at college and ultimately give me the confidence to start my own company. When your young your impressionable and always looking for role models whether your consciously doing so or not, which is why parents should always introduce good role models to their children and not let them blindly follow music, particularly hip hop and, make sure you dress your children decently, in a shirt and chino’s, casual smart if possible, it’s cheaper than Addidas and Nike, which makes them look like they are in the streets and all it entails.

At The age of twenty in 2000 I enrolled at Buckinghamshire New University studying Advertising & Promotions BA HONS I did two years of the course before deciding to leave as the course was leaning in a direction I hadn’t anticipated and write a book or two and start out in business so I decided in the holidays to do that, previously over seven years during secondary school and throughout college I had saved up a small amount of money by working in retail for companies like Harrods, Selfridges and French Connection etc.

In 2001 whilst on a walk in Knightsbridge, West London I came across a copy of The Hedge Fund Journal, a journal and magazine all about the hedge fund industry on the reception table at private bank C. Hoare & Co and had the initial inspiration for a magazine. I remember picking it up from the coffee table in the bank and thinking I love business and I love magazines and this embodies the two, as a magazine it is also beautifully produced to this day.

Shortly after I left university in 2002, I used my savings from working in retail to start my business which was called Northrup Drummond, it comprised of a publishing company called Merlin Publishing.

Before retiring I had been living in De Beauvoir, North London in a one bedroom flat with my cats Roberta & Zeus.

I have only just recently finished my book ‘’The Epoch Of The Hu’’, I finished it in December 2023 it took eighteen years to write and am looking forward to seeing it published and in print and possibly theatre and film adaptations, I also hope to have a special limited edition coffee table version published by my favourite publishing house Assouline which would be stamp signed. I’ve also written a short book of poetry called ‘’Ein Sof’’, of some sixty poems I am also hoping to have published.

Now I am Honorary Active Chairman at Northrup Investment Fund, a fund set up as a charitable or philanthropic investment fund which will be used to purchase and make investments in retail, automotive and technology companies as well as urban planning, infrastructure projects.

How important is culture to you

Culture is very important, British people have such a rich almost all encompassing culture its so encompassing many think they don’t in fact have any culture, I was keen to teach myself all about language, literature, architecture etc, it really could be something to latch onto in order to increase social mobility, there is plenty which includes language, the English language is very popular worldwide and is used as the intermediary language, i.e how different cultures other than British communicate with each other, architecture, music, a lot of of literature, Shakespeare, Jane Austin, Charles Dickins etc, monarchy, the arts, from David Hockney to Edwin Landseer and food or cuisine which includes things like pubs to name a few, I love culture and how it connects it’s something you can actually share with others and is an opportunity to put your best foot forward in an international sense.

My Jamaican father told me to identify with my grandparents African culture when espousing black culture which includes many different languages, dress as well as well cultivated values like education and family. I think he was concerned with Jamaican culture but I have come to learn Jamaica is actually quite a conservative country.

Who inspires you

I take inspiration from many areas, politics, business, sport and culture, people who inspire me are Lewis Hamilton, Steve Ballmer, Don Peebles and Baroness Perry of Southwark among others. I also take inspiration from figures such as Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who gave back to the community in the form of libraries, and event venues and I think wealthy individuals should follow his example as I will.

Are you focused solely on philanthropy now.

Pretty much, via The Abrams Foundaton which focuses on institution building, new public parks, development and philanthropy, one being The Vincent Abrams Business & IP Centre, to help people start their own business and help them with lessons on IP (intellectual property) and how they can grow their business’s. I also plan to found several schools and a university.

I think it’s fair to say, if I didn’t study business at college I wouldn’t be where I am today, and anyone can go and study business at college today, they could enrol on a foundation business course at their local college, where you don’t even need GCSE’S and its free, from there you can study foundation, intermediate, then advanced and from there go on to university, there really is no excuse for men or women who find themselves aimlessly in the streets.

I also think if you’re going to start a business start it young, but make sure you get to university and get a qualification first, university environments are an amazing place to meet potential colleagues, it takes a certain amount of ignorance to execute on a business idea and if it does fail, by the time your thirty or forty you can get into employment with it not being too late and your qualification will aid in this.

I am also soon to work with a venture capital firm to launch The Obsidian Fund, which is a fund businesses in the media, technology and retail space, the fund will not apply to beauty, fashion, bakery, personal training, beauty and hair care products so I think it’s important that be known, more information will be released nearer the time the fund is is launched.