No sooner had Neil Cannon commenced his role at Citibank when the following email was sent from his email address to fellow graduates:
From: Cannon, Neil R [ICG-GBKG]
Sent: Tuesday, 19 July 2011 3:46 PM
To: *GBKG AU Associates; *GBKG AU Analysts
Subject: GuysLooking to be a rock star at this place – feel free to send through your tips, but I think I’ve got this one covered.
Neil Cannon
Citi Investment Banking
T: +61 2 8225 4676
M: +61 401 540 599
It looks like the original email was sent from an alternate email address, which was forwarded to Mr Cannon’s Citibank email address, perhaps for the purposes of wider dissemination. The funny part – the inclusion of a new commentary (forwarding the email above):
From: Cannon, Neil R [ICG-GBKG]
Sent: Tuesday, 19 July 2011 4:08 PM
To: Cannon, Neil R [ICG-GBKG]; *GBKG AU Associates; *GBKG AU Analysts
Subject: RE: GuysFor the haters and the doubters – check this out:
– Double degree – boom
– Commerce – boom
– Law – boom
– Spanish – boom
– Cleo – boom tick
Attached to the email was the jpeg to the right, revealing Cannon’s perplexing views on banking, pressure, women’s interest in bankers, “women’s stocks” and success. (See also Mr Cannon’s musings on student exchanges here.)
But the fun doesn’t stop there, not even close! The real pleasure of receiving a viral email, like this one (which we have in our hot little hands), is scrolling through the comments that individuals append to the original email each time they forward it.
Here is a taste, with redactions:
1) From Charter Hall
From: @charterhall.com.au]
Sent: Wednesday, 5 October 2011 11:29 AM
To:
Subject: FW: Guys
Read below, but something like
Wnker – BOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!
Career – KAAA BOOOOMMMMM!!
2) From Investec
From: @investec.com.au
Sent: Wednesday, 5 October 2011 3:01 PM
To:
Subject: FW: Guysdo you know this guy?!!! what an idiot!
3) From Patersons Securities
From: @psl.com.au
Sent: Wednesday, 5 October 2011 4:41 PM
To:
Subject: FW: Guys
Have a look at this complete moron!! Read from the bottom,
The guy has sent the 2 attachments around to everyone at Citi.
What a dropkick!
4) From Westpac
From: @westpac.com.au
Sent: Thursday, 6 October 2011 1:35 PM
To:
Subject: Fw: Guys – OMG!!!look at this bloke. lock up your daughters!
5) From ANZ
From: @anz.com
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:17 PM
To:
Subject: FW: GuysHave a look at this joker in the email trail below… must read from bottom… The guy joins Citi and sends this clanger with the attachments on day 1 to all analysts and associates.
6) From ANZ # 2
From: @anz.com
Sent: Friday, 7 October 2011 10:00 AM
Subject: FW: GuysGone viral. What not to do on your first day!
7) From KMPG
From: @kpmg.com.au
Sent: 7 October 2011 10:35 AM
Subject: FW: GuysHow to be a rock star on the first day as a grad.
Open the attachments then read from bottom to top
From Clayton Utz to Norton Rose
From: @claytonutz.com
Sent: Friday, 7 October 2011 11:41 AM
To:
Subject: FW: Guyslol
9) From Urbis
From: @urbis.com.au
Sent: Friday, 7 October 2011 10:58 AM
To:
Subject: FW: GuysHow NOT to start as a grad- read bottom, dude emailed this & attachments to all associates/analysts at Citibank when he started as a grad
WOT A WANKAAAAA
10) From a Graduate Corrs to Fellow Corrs Grads
From:
Sent: Monday, 10 October 2011 3:52 PM
To: Graduate Lawyers BNE 2011
Subject: FW: GuysHow not to be a grad…
Read from the very bottom and then open the attachments.
Law Graduate
@corrs.com.au
Tel
Fax +61 7 3228 9444
www.corrs.com.au11) From Easternwell
From: @esternwell.com.au
Sent: Tuesday, 11 October 2011 8:12 AM
To:
Subject: FW: GuysRead from the bottom up and the attachments.
What not to do as a grad!!
What a tool.
Deprecated by corporate Australia – BOOM.
Before we sign off it would be remiss of us not to note that, despite the apparent authenticity of the original emails sent from Mr Cannon’s email account, it has been reported that Citibank is claiming the original email was a “hoax”.
Send the Firm Spy your news and views!
Update: we just received the following email from someone in Corporate Affairs at Citi:
Please note that the email referred to in this story was not written by Neil Cannon. Please correct asap.
[We're not sure which email she's referring to, as there are quite a few referred to in this post. We also think the original story makes it pretty clear that Citi regards the email as a hoax - though the Cleo article and viral email forwards certainly look real to us.]
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Firm spy – one day a highly insightful journalistic piece on the internationals and Don Draper, the next a highly hypocritical piece which will surely bring this poor bloke to tears and shame after being the victim of some clear grad knifing prank. No body writes an email like that on thier first day (surely not!) FS- did you even offer this bloke the chance to comment before pressing ‘post’? It’s shit like this that makes the fs high horse leadership articles about ending bullying and depression in our industry pretty hard to accept as being a legitimate attempt at change and more the musings of the only smart contributor of your site.
Is this one of the greatest stitch-ups of all time?
My guess is that (apart from appearing in Cleo) the biggest mistake he ever made was leaving his work computer unattended for 5 mins while one of his ‘mates’ sent these emails ……
If I’m wrong though …………… what a thunderwanker!!!
This is poor judgment from whoever sent it on Neil’s behalf. It is a funny prank, but whoever sent it has not properly thought of the outcome.
However, if you are going to pose for Cleo, you obviously have some confidence/arrogance, and I am not surprised someone did this to him.
Disagree very strongly with Disgraceful above. Whether or not the email is legitimate, Cannon is richly deserving of FS’ comparatively light character assassination based on his involvement in the CLEO spread alone. What a massive douchebag!
Making the FS front page – BOOOOOOM!!
Grad Rockstar. Is a Rockstar…. In ma pants!
Hoax..
http://mumbrella.com.au/smh-falls-for-the-email-that-was-too-good-to-be-true-61331#comment-92936.
Re: Disgraceful, all FS has done is teach our graduates two vital things:
1. Don’t leave your computer without locking it first
2. Don’t feature in Cleo
Nice to see firmspy has redacted the contact details of all those who participated in the email chain, but saw fit to post this kid’s phone numbers…
Hilarious!
Sad fact – saw him in Cleo a while back and thought he was cute.
Thank you FS the community service in saving me making a life fail with the name & shame!
Has anyone checked the date of the original email. How has it only gone viral now?
Kind of cruel – the kid is young and cocky – I bet he went to a GPS school – they tend to turn ‘em out wankers
I know a guy I hired in his early 20′s – this sounds just so like him before he came down to earth.
If it is genuine – I feel sorry for him – I am old enough to have done all my stupid stuff before the internet..
Learn from it Neil – don’t let it get you down, but if it is true, learn to not bignote yourself.
There is an old saying that self-praise is no recommendation
Kinda of a two wrongs don’t make a right, eh FS?
@Anon
Its a fax number. You will probably find that its the generic number for one of Corrs’ offices.
Poor lad. FS, the first poster’s comment has some merit.
Clutz would be enjoying the automatic emoticon at #8
So he is a wanker… you sayin other bankers are not wankers? He is just a wanker with a sense of humour.
It must be a well crafted hoax…. or the prank of the century…
First hacking his private email account… then writing and sending the email… then hacking his work email account and sending it out….
The perpetrator is a criminal mastermind…. or the bloke is a class A t*sser
I would lean towards the second summation… noting his name down now for future reference… would be great to come across him at some stage and roz the stuffing out of him
“Before we sign off it would be remiss of us not to note that, despite the apparent authenticity of the original emails sent from Mr Cannon’s email account, it has been reported that Citibank is claiming the original email was a “hoax”.”
What is remiss of you is that you continue to publish this article knowing that the original email was a hoax.
If or when the reader sites this correction at the very bottom of your article the damage to Neil’s reputation is already done.
Surely, nothing short of a full page correction and an apology to Neil would be to suffice to remediate the damage already done by your lack of sound journalist practise which saw this smutty article published in the first place.
FS writers, how do you sleep at night knowing that your article is doing so much damage to someone who doesn’t deserve it?
http://m.theage.com.au/business/citibank-calls-in-the-fun-police-20111020-1macw.html