September 2010: Perspective Goes a Long Way

It's difficult to know what to write on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks—a day that not only changed the world forever, but also robbed Waters and Risk Waters Group of a number of its brightest and most talented staff members. Perhaps it is appropriate at a time like this to consider for a moment those people who lost loved ones on that clear September day, and also to acknowledge that regardless of how late the trains are running, or how backed-up the Brooklyn Bridge might be, these issues are largely inconsequential in the greater scheme of things.

For the vast majority of Waters readers, we are lucky to be living in the West: Most of us are unlikely to ever experience genuine hardship, the likes of which are part and parcel of everyday life for increasingly large numbers of people less fortunate than ourselves. At the risk of sounding patronizingly philosophical and altruistic, what more appropriate time than the anniversary of the September 11 attacks is there to focus our perspective on those things that truly matter?

Below is a message posted on Incisive Media’s intranet by Matthew Crabbe, managing director of the firm’s risk management and financial IT division, and the last remaining senior staff member from the old Risk Waters days. There are still a handful of us left in the New York, Hong Kong and London offices who were part of Risk Waters back in 2001, but that number continues to shrink.

The management and staff of Incisive Media remember and pay tribute to their friends and colleagues who worked for Risk Waters Group—which was acquired by Incisive Media in 2003—and who were attending the Waters Financial Technology Congress at Windows on the World on September 11, 2001. They were:

Sarah Ali Escarcega
Oliver Bennett
Paul Bristow
Neil Cudmore
Melanie de Vere
Michele du Berry
Elisa Ferraina
Amy Lamonsoff
Sarah Prothero
David Rivers
Laura Rockefeller
Karlie Rogers
Simon Turner
Celeste Victoria
Joanna Vidal
Dinah Webster

We also remember the 65 delegates, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors at the Waters Congress who lost their lives.