News
The Prince attends the BGC Annual Global Charity Day
11th September 2008
The Prince of Wales was joined by celebrity ambassadors of his charity The Prince’s Trust at a fundraising event on the trading floor of BGC Partners, a global inter-dealer broker.
The firm hosted the event at its headquarters in Canary Wharf and will donate a day's trading to The Prince's Trust and a large number of other organisations.
Former supermodel Jerry Hall, an ambassador for the Trust, was joined by a host of stars, all supporters of the organisation including actor and artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre, Kevin Spacey, broadcaster Kate Adie, British actor Joseph Fiennes, ex-footballers Dion Dublin and Gary Mabbutt and Olympic gold medallist sailor Ben Ainslie. The Prince of Wales was also joined by his niece, Zara Phillips.
Spacey impressed the City brokers with his trading skills when he took the phone from one worker to complete broking deals between banks.
The BGC Annual Global Charity Day was established by the firm in memory of staff from its sister company at investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, who lost their lives during the 9/11 attacks in New York seven years ago.
The firm lost 658 employees - more than any other organisation including the fire department of the city of New York.
In the aftermath of the attacks The Prince visited BGC's staff in London to pay his respects.
The money raised from the event for the Prince's Trust will be used to fund the charity's Sport United Initiative to help young people become more physically, economically and socially active.
During The Prince of Wales's visit he chatted for more than hour with the brokers, sharing jokes with the City workers who stopped their trading to take pictures of the Prince or shake his hand.
He told them that he was "touched" by his visit to their offices in 2001 and added: "I'm thrilled, if I may say, that BGC has picked itself up in such a remarkable way."