City profiles

T. Boone Pickens The legendary Texan oil wildcatter and trader will soon turn 90 and, for the first time in his life, is “feeling his age”, says Jon Shazar on Dealbreaker.com. After a series of strokes, Pickens – who once challenged Barack Obama to a fitness competition and was described by his fifth wife as “the most flexible man I have ever known” – has closed his hedge fund, BP Capital. “But his acolytes have made sure that he’ll live on”, in an investment fund. The Pickens Oil Response ETF, which began trading on Wall Street this week, will track a new NYSE Pickens Oil Response Index. The great man’s philosophy (“if it turns on the lights, buy it”) is headed for immortality. It’s the first time, says the exchange, that an individual has been honoured with their own stock index.

Carol Smillie

Carol Smillie was a TV presenter for three decades, says The Daily Telegraph. And then suddenly that “wide, knowing smile” was gone. What has she been up to? In 2012, Smillie “took an unexpected turn”, setting up a knicker company, Pretty Clever Pants, with the unabashed aim of tackling “any kind of leaky problem”. First designed for teenagers getting to grips with periods, they are now mostly sold to older women with stress incontinence. Smillie recently licensed the brand to the shopping channel highstreettv.com. Will that leave her free to start a new venture? “No,” she cries, “not another business... People talk of setting up a business and selling it for millions with no apparent effort. Well, that’s rubbish.” It was “one of the toughest things I have ever done”.