At lunch as in business, Nelson Peltz makes his preferences known. Sweeping past the row of pink bougainvillea into Trevini in Palm Beach, the octogenarian activist investor and father-in-law of Brooklyn Beckham greets me, then turns to the waiter: “Can you turn the music down? We have important stuff to talk about.”
It’s the proprietor’s prerogative — Peltz’s 19-year-old investment firm, Trian Partners, owns the building and the Italian restaurant is their de facto canteen. Soon the elevator-style music quietens down and we settle at our table on the outdoor terrace.
Peltz, 81, dressed in the off-duty-billionaire uniform of navy blue polo shirt and zip-up jumper, is a busy man. He’s waging his second proxy fight in as many years at US entertainment group Walt Disney; he’s trying to sharpen up Unilever, the maker of Marmite, Dove soap and Hellman’s mayonnaise; and he’s “reluctantly getting involved in US politics again”.