Andy Veit, Captain of Industry

Please see below a photo of me standing side-by-side (or side-by-side-by-side-by-side-by-side, as the case may be) with Teck Moh Phey, the President and CEO of Pacific Internet Ltd. on the momentous morning of June 15, 2006.

That day, those of us who are in the inner sanctum of close advisors to Mr. Phey gathered to open the Nasdaq stock market. Here's an action shot, from which I was unfortunately cut out (Mr. Phey had two people fired for that mistake):

This ceremony was broadcast live on the jumbotron in Times Square, as well as on the following TV networks: Bloomberg, Bloomberg Brazil, CNBC, Fox, CNBC India, KTVU, NDTV (New Delhi), Report on Business (Canada), and New Tang Dynasty TV.

You know you've made it when you make your first appearance on New Tang Dynasty TV. Hopefully it'll be the first of many for me.

The Story Behind The Story

I'd love to let the above story speak for itself, but (i) I'd get a boatload of e-mails asking me what the hell is going on, and (ii) as a former newsie, I can't let that kind of B.S. go.

What happened was my friend Alan Katz (we went to high school together) called me that morning with a problem: he had a client opening the Nasdaq market and they didn't have enough bodies wearing suits to stand behind him and clap. I happened to be wearing a suit because I was going to Todd Bender's rehearsal dinner that night, and I work around the corner from the Nasdaq. So of course I jumped in a cab, got there at 9:25, shook a couple hands (not Mr. Phey's) and stood as far off to the side as I could-- it's not a mistake that I was the first person cropped off when the camera pushed in.

They snapped some photos and then told us to clap and cheer for a couple minutes while we were taken live. The thing I was most pleased about was the fact that I snuck a couple "huzzah's" in while we were live. It seemed like an appropriate exclamation to me. What was I gonna say? "Woohoo?" Doesn't fit.