Mini rugby and media

What's the connection? I mentioned in my Saturday post that CMP Asia had reported good results as part of United Business Media's 2006 earnings announcement. There's a good piece in the London Sunday Times which interviews UBM CEO David Levin. I've only met him once - at last year's FIPP B2B conference in London - but the word on the street is very positive and the company seems to be doing well.

The Times' Andrew Davidson describes him as "the analysts’ darling right now" noting that "in the two years since he took the top slot at UBM — formerly Lord Hollick’s acquisition vehicle — he has turned it from a hotchpotch of TV and print interests into a focused business-to-business publisher, regularly cited as one of the most impressive operators in the quoted media sector".

Oh, and the rugby connection..."Levin spends his weekends helping to coach a mini-rugby team for under 11s." Good for him. I finally hung up my whistle a couple of years ago but here's picture proof of the connection between business media in Asia and mini rugby...the winning Hong Kong University Sandy Bay under-12 team in 2005.