Has an alternative asset ever performed better? Dressed like a Dutch version of legendary comic character Dame Edna Everage, ABN Amro’s chairman has taken to the stage to teach his employees the lessons they can learn from operating a brothel.
Priscilla Zalm, the fictional sister of Gerrit Zalm, 61, the former Dutch finance minister and chairman of the state-owned bank since 2009, has been drafted in to motivate ABN’s 23,000 employees with a combination of wit, charm and daring innuendo.
In the opening act of six performances this month, brothel owner Priscilla told her audience that she was blessed with a good front office – pointing to her bosom – and a top notch back office. She was, she said with a knowing look, working in a “flourishing business with a centuries’ long tradition”.