Castro and Stockmaster

Book excerpt: Michael Nelson was General Manager of Reuters. He was one of the principal architects of Reuters development of computerised financial information, which caused a revolution in world markets.Castro and Stockmaster is Michael’s fascinating memoir and covers his time with Reuters when he travelled throughout the world and met many heads of state. The most extraordinary meeting was the night he and his wife spent in Havana with Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, which had a remarkable dénouement, recounted here for the first time.The son of a carpenter, Michael read history at Magdalen College, Oxford before joining Reuters as a trainee. He was initially posted to Asia. He was made the global head of Reuters economic services in London at the age of 33. In 1964 Nelson acquired the rights outside North America to an American system of computerised financial information called Stockmaster. Reuters computerised financial information services transformed the fortunes of the company and the newspapers that owned it. The proceeds of the public offering of Reuter shares in 1984 gave new life to British newspapers, enabling many in Fleet Street to move to well equipped premises in Docklands.Michael’s memoir will appeal to anyone interested in the media and international finance and is a unique account of the development of Reuters over the last 60 years.Profits from the sales of this book will go to the charity SOS Children, Pakistan. The donation is in recognition of the taxi driver who saved Michael’s life in Karachi when he was attacked in an anti-British riot during the Suez crisis.