Following last year’s success, Stars’n’Bars is holding another wellbeing day on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
For its next free EcoHub event on Sunday, April 8, the eco-active restaurant has called on TCM specialists in Monaco and its surroundings to share all their knowledge from 1 pm to 6 pm.
According to the principles of TCM, a poor circulation of energy can cause an imbalance in the body. Topics such as acupuncture, iridology, tao, and Chinese dietotherapy will be discussed to meet the natural needs of our body.
This is another must-attend event for those wishing to discover or deepen their knowledge through mini-conferences and meetings with: Dr Danièle Massobrio Macchi (“Self-realisation and health optimisation through energy”, 1 pm); Christiane Brych (“The eye messages the 3 bodies”, 2 pm), Franck Pasquon (“Understanding Chinese medicine when you are Western: The challenge of a lifetime”, 2 pm), Fanny Rigaud (“The Chinese diet – how to treat yourself with good food”, 4 pm); and Louisa Mercier (“From fear to love”, 5 pm).
There will also be stands to visit during the afternoon. Two English speakers, Susanne Batstone (Bach Flowers and Chinese Medicine) and acupuncturist Heather Lounsbury, as well as French-speaking Anne Caravel (healing with essential oils) and Christiane Bach and Les Oligo elements will be on hand to answer to discuss TCM.
The family-friendly event will be held in French and entry is free.
Last month’s EcoHub event was an afternoon of family-friendly workshops, games and exhibitions on how Monaco residents can reduce their carbon footprints, held in partnership with the Mission for Energy Transition (MTE) in charge of the National Pact for Energy Transition.
A £50,000 contract like Marco’s comes around only a couple of times a year.
A recent widower in his late fifties, Marco lives between Trieste, Monaco, Cap Ferrat, and Houston – a complicated geography for a client but nothing our agency’s expertise can’t handle.
Marco’s two children are in their early twenties, and loved their American mother dearly. He asked us to search for an elegant lady with a well-established career, who travelled for work or pleasure, and/or owned her own business. Also, as he didn’t wish to have more children or further upset his own, he wanted to meet an age-appropriate woman also in her 50s.
Cross-cultural, smart, and cosmopolitan were the qualities of potential partners, which we found easily in our database.
I had matched Marco with six international dates (of the ten in his contract). The profiles included a tech entrepreneur who travelled regularly from Sophia Antipolis, France, to the US; a pharmaceutical heiress whose interests were complementary to Marco’s Italian-Austrian fortunes inherited from his grandparent’s biopharmaceutical business; and a Nigella Lawson-type gourmet expert, who ran a cooking school in London and a summer school in Valbonne, France.
Yet six months into his contract, Marco began feeling restless. Since we provide 24-hour phone access with a £50,000 contract, he began calling me in the middle of the night, trying to take control of the search with additional suggestions for partners. Furthermore, the minimum age had dropped to 45 when Marco celebrated his 60th birthday with a party for a hundred friends at his home in St-Jean-Cap-Farrat at the end of summer.
By November, Marco summoned me to St Moritz to look at more profiles. As per protocol, I suggested no more than three. He refused my advice. I was searching my database for a woman I’d met named Eva when I mistakenly clicked on another Eva’s file.
“Wait, who is that?” Marco inquired looking at the screen.
“Oh no, she’s not right for you,” I replied, but Marco had seen Eva’s picture and declared: “I want her, and I want her now!”
All the psychology and training that goes into matching would indicate these two profiles had very little in common. Eva, 38, was not interested in having children and her stunning looks were enough to keep her self-obsessed. And even though she comes from a wealthy Monaco-based Danish family, she was self-sufficient: she earned a law degree to keep her father happy, but did not feel the need to practice law.
I got hold of Eva and she agreed to meet Marco … the following month. Waiting was not something you want to ask a man like Marco to do. “Tell her that I will send my plane to Nice airport for her to board at any time the next day,” was his answer.
Eva was not easily persuaded, though. Marco relented and said she could bring her miniature pooch. Sneezing at the thought, he grumbled that she better be worth the effort.
She arrived in St Moritz, swishing down the private jet’s stairs in leather, fur and enormous sunglasses. She looked every inch as good in person as she did in photos. Eva looked Marco, who met her at the airport, up and down haughtily and kissed the air next to the sides of his head while exaggeratedly bending down from her mountainously inappropriate heels.
They had a quick glass of Meursault at Badrutt’s Palace and he then showed Eva to her suite as she was tired. She remained in her room for the next three days.
When she finally asked to see a doctor, a French-German silver fox melodramatically announced to Marco after the consultation, “Mademoiselle has had, ah, a recent augmentation – how you say, ‘boob job’. She was told she should not travel, but apparently you insisted, so she blames you for not feeling very well. In truth there is nothing wrong with her but the lady is, er, a little spoiled and would like to go home now.”
The moral of the story? Let your Matchmaker keep abreast of your potential partners. Tee hee.
Barbara Brudenell-Bruce is a matchmaker with London’s exclusive matchmaking agency, Vida, and her network boasts an impressive list of entrepreneurs, celebrities and aristocrats. She lives between Monaco and London. Article first published April 6, 2018.
ML: Tell us about your background and career that led you to be a Team Manager of Ferrari Formula One and then Senior Director of International R&D and Product Development at Pirelli tyres. DC: Well, let’s just say that ever since I was young my passion has been motor racing, specifically Formula One. I dreamt of becoming a driver but my family was against it and anyway, the amount of money needed to start this career path was not in our means. But I never gave up on turning my passion into a career.
I started off as a junior assistant at the Renault Cup – which in the Eighties was the most important European racing car championship – and soon after became the organiser in Italy. One day I decided that I wanted to do more and I wrote a letter to Enzo Ferrari himself, asking if he had a position for a young man with my experience. It was actually quite funny: first because I was a Lotus fan, and second because two months later I stared my new job as a Ferrari F 1 Team Manager!
Working with Enzo, and alongside the Team Principal Marco Piccinini, engineers Mauro Forghieri and Harvey Postlethwaite and with great drivers – Gilles Villeneuve, Didier Pironi, Rene Arnoux, Patrick Tambay, Michele Alboreto and Mario Andretti – was an incredible experience that to this day I remember with nostalgia and the same enthusiasm for what we accomplished: Two F1 World Constructors’ Championships and 7 GP victories. And the proof that with a new turbo era, Ferrari, with the Italian suppliers Agip, Brembo, Magneti Marelli, Tecnoelettra and others, was second to none.
After four years in Formula One, I again wanted to do more: Mr Ferrari understood and he asked me to become a Marketing Manager for Ferrari in North America, and I accepted.
Pirelli was the next step in my career. Ferrari at the time was a small family company and I wanted experience in a big one. And so it was.
ML: Can you talk about your groundbreaking technology in Electric Integrated Propulsion Systems? DC: The technology is complex and patented, but I’ll try to summarise: we have a range of new generation radial and axial flux electric motors. We offer a propulsion system in which the energy, the motor itself, the transmission and the propeller are all one. It’s a plug and play system calculated on the characteristics of the hull. Therefore we can adjust the parameters together with the shipyards’ design team in order to maximise the performances or the autonomy, “on demand”.
The TM EIPS is for inboard superyachts tenders and sport and recreational powerboats and passenger boats. The TM POD is a new range of submerged high power motors either full electric or hybrid.
This technology will revolutionise the nautical world together with the diffusion of boats with foils. The “foilers” in fact have a very low resistance to advancement, they almost fly over the water, and therefore the need for large batteries is eliminated.
For sailboats the TM POD can be installed in the keel with the battery pack in the above hull. Together with the TM RANGE EXTENDER, that can be use for the TM EIPS as well, we can recharge the battery pack while in motion.
Dario Calzavara together with Patrick Tambay at the German GP at Hockenheim in 1984.
ML: Your company Terra Modena Mechatronic has been identified as one of the world’s most innovative sustainable technology companies. Tell us about its history. DC: We will surely become a big player in sustainable mobility technology but for now I prefer to keep my feet planted on the ground and grow day by day. We have a clear market vision, great competences and competitive and exclusive products with the right price. We have all the basic ingredients for important growth in a very big and profitable emergent market segment: the demand for high performance, eco sustainable, zero emission powerboats is taking off nowadays.
In the European in-land waters, in the German, Austrian, Swiss and north countries’ lakes, rivers and fiords, it’s nearly impossible to use private boats with diesel engines. We are here to fulfil this demand that currently has no solution. In fact, there are many manufacturers of low-power electric units, but nobody in the high-power electric segment: we are the only one. We have a consistent advantage against any potential competitor. We will not be alone for long, but today we have the opportunity to maintain a long-lasting position of excellence in the high-end yachting market. We know how to maintain this gap.
At the Shanghai EXPO in 2010, I had a kind of fatal attraction when I visited the huge pavilion of the Chinese technologies for new carbon free mobility. I told myself that if a country of a 1.4 billion people was investing large amounts of resources in new mobility, while in Europe we were doing almost nothing, there had to be a reason . Consequently I decided to invest two years of my life to learn about this area. I visited suppliers, research labs and universities in Asia, and in the US, Silicon Valley, Ohio State University and Glemson-Cuicar in South Carolina.
In 2015, I founded Terra Modena Mechatronic and the funny thing is that most of my engineers and suppliers, apart from the Lithium cells, are just a “bike ride” away from Modena.
ML: What is the future for Terra Modena and why is Monaco a good match for your technology? DC: Our future is in our hands! Monaco is important for two reason: it’s the capital of yachting and more than that, Prince Albert II is the most credible and prestigious head of state who has made environmental sustainability an absolute priority. His enlightened vision sees the Principality together with the Government of the most populous country in the world. The right combination to respond to those who deny the dramatic problem of sustainability.
ML: You recently presented at CleanEquity Monaco conference. How important is this conference and how was your experience? DC: I didn’t know about CleanEquity Monaco but a friend told me that it would worth it for me to participate. I can never thank him enough, as I met high tech companies with whom I will work in the very near future, but more than that, I have been enriched by debates on science and new technologies to ensure the survival of the planet.
The level of world experts and researchers was very high, as was the level of companies that develop technologies to help solve dramatic problems. Unfortunately, nothing can be done if governments do not approve economic support measures for the development of these technologies that are already available.
ML: Have cars and motors always been your passion? DC: I am and have always been interested in technology and motor racing – Formula 1, Le Mans and now Formula E – although my curiosity for road cars, even though I’m a former Ferrari manager, has been at a minimum. But within the next decade, the new electric, hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell technologies will become a standard for all of us. And this evolution I follow every day.
See www.terramodena.eu for more information. Article first published April 2, 2018.
Le Lauzet-Ubaye. Photo: Facebook Alpes de Haute-Provence Tourisme
The Office of Action and Social Assistance (DASO), in collaboration with the Princess Stephanie Youth Centre, is offering summer camp stays, which will take place in a campsite in the Alpes-de-France-Haute-Provence, in the town of Le Lauzet-Ubaye.
These sessions will take place from Sunday, July 1, to Saturday July 14; Sunday, July 15, to Saturday, July 28; and again between Sunday, July 29, and Saturday, August 11.
For information about complementary programmes and prices for 8- to 12-year-olds and 13- to 15-year-olds, those interested should contact DASO: 23 avenue Albert II, 3rd floor above Carrefour, from 9:30 am to 5 pm (tel: 377 98 98 88 73), or the Princess Stephanie Youth Centre at 45 avenue des Papalins, from 3 pm to 7 pm (tel: 377 93 50 75 05).
Monaco’s €2 billion offshore expansion project, which is currently underway at Portier Cove, could lead to a change of layout of its Formula 1 track, according to reports on F1i.com and in Forbes magazine, both citing comments by Prince Albert.
Located just before the circuit’s tunnel, the urban expansion over the Mediterranean is set to take approximately 15 acres of land from the sea. Once completed in 2025, the new district will include residential properties – among the most expensive in the world – public spaces, a landscaped park and a small marina.
Prince Albert has hinted that the extra parcel could eventually also serve the purpose of changing the layout of the Monaco Grand Prix track.
“We look, every once in a while, at different possibilities of extending the track, and certainly something to think about is that we are building the new land extension,” Prince Albert said in an interview with Forbes.
“There are no plans or anything yet, it is just in the back of all of our minds – people in the Automobile Club but also in the Government – that there could be.
“I am not saying that it will happen necessarily, but at some point we are going to put our minds together and say, how can we not only improve this, but how can we make it a little more exciting by maybe changing the course slightly?
“We haven’t gone beyond this simple statement of an idea,” he said. Referring to the Monaco Grand Prix’s iconic status, he added: “It is such a part of the history of the sport that I can’t envisage an F1 season without the Monaco Grand Prix.
“When you talk to all the partners of F1 and they tell you this is one of the venues where we don’t hesitate to bring our customers, that has got to mean something. It is unique for most people.”
The Adoreum Club is hosting an invitation-only breakfast at the Monaco Yacht Club in conjunction with its Club Member, Ellipses Pharma, on Thursday, April 19.
Professor Sir Christopher Evans, named one of “the 25 most influential people in biopharma today”, will be a speaker who will share not only his inspiring story and journey of founding multiple highly-successful companies, which have gone on to save many lives, but also talk for the first time publicly about his new project Ellipses Pharma, exclusively focused on the development of innovative cancer treatments.
With 12 Doctor of Science degrees and over 100 scientific publications and patents on his scientific work, Sir Chris has created over 50 profitable science businesses in the UK and Europe worth over €4 billion.
The Adoreum Club is a discrete, fun and interesting business events platform that provides ongoing access to investors and business leaders via its programme in London, Zurich, Monaco and other cities including New York, Berlin and Tel Aviv.
Club Membership is by invitation only and consists of innovators, creators, business leaders, investors and philanthropists, creating a unique and eclectic mix of influential market leaders.
The Adoreum Club additionally hosts quarterly lunches, which are typically attended by over 100 business leaders from a huge variety of industries, and on a monthly basis the Club holds a breakfast led by a selected guest speaker who is invited to discuss a contemporary topic relevant to members, their businesses and charitable interests.
