Mr MONEY BAGS
WALL ST TYCOON WINS PIPING PRIZES
Norman Silvester A Wall Street tycoon decided to enter a competition at the World Pipe Band Championships at the last minute and ended up scooping top prizes.
Mult i- mi l l ionai re Stephen Pack, 53, is bet ter known for building hospitals in America. But the businessman shocked rivals when he won gold and silver medals last week at a prestigiou s event organised by the National Piping Centre in Glasgow. Stephen’s New York- based f i rm Armadale Capital Inc – one of the US’s fastest growing firms in 203 – are named after the village on the island of Skye, home to Stephen’s Scottish ancestors.
He only took part after applying at the last minute.
Stephen, of Detroit, said: “There was a big Scottish population in Michigan when I was growing up. I was a member of the St Andrews Pipe band when I was a boy. When I come to Scotland I feel as though I am a kid in a toy store.
“I’ve always been interested in piping but drifted in and out of it over the years.
“I rekindled the hunger when I went to a Highland Games in North Carolina three years ago and saw a blind man compete. I started playing solo againagain.
“The music and the culture fascinate me and take me to places I wouldn’t have gone to and great people I would have never met.”
His paternal gran was from Paisley and moved to the US in the early 1900s.
Other family members hail from Banff and Kinlochmoidart in the Highlands.
He entered the Class three section of the Competitive League for Amateur Solo Pipers and won his gongs in the Pibroch category.
The piping contest was one of a number that took place last week ahead of the World Pipe Band Championships yesterday at Glasgow Green.