esquire | promotion
not so fortunate, climbers who had
From Left Jake Meyer, Pablo Abellan
Villastrigo and Peter Leiman with new
vertu ascent 2010 collection
thrill seekers
take it to
the limit
When it comes to taking on the spirit
of adventure, these three men have
done it in style
Being tough, powerful and staying stylish
isn’t an easy combination to carry off, but
the new Vertu Ascent phone manages it
with aplomb. Every component has been
engineered for strength and hi-tech metals
and ceramics of a kind found on the Nasa
space shuttle abound. “I wanted Ascent to
be influenced by power, by energy, by the
precision of a beautiful engine,” says Vertu
principal designer Frank Nuovo. The
sapphire crystal lens alone can withstand
the heat from a blowtorch, while each
model undergoes stringent free-fall and
screen-impact tests. Vertu’s Fortress
system is equally failsafe, wirelessly
backing up your data to ultra-secure
servers located in an ex-military bunker
with a background in finance, aviation and
in the UK, meaning your business will
always be your business. Add in Vertu’s
legendary click-of-a-button concierge
service and you have the ultimate tool to
keep you connected — in every way.
In addition to extreme technological
advances, it’s good to know that there are
also some people who are still driven by
exploring the outer limits of human
endurance, testing their own abilities
against their surroundings, and pushing
their creative and entrepreneurial powers
to the max.
That spirit of adventure is alive and
thriving in three very different men:
explorer and climber Jake Meyer, architect
and model Pablo Abellan Villastrigo
and entrepreneur and businessman
Peter Leiman.
Meyer succeeded in becoming the
youngest Briton to climb Everest — and
then went on to become the youngest man
in the world to climb the Seven Summits,
the highest peaks of the seven continents.
A Sandhurst educated army scholar
who has been in the Territorial Army for
seven years, Meyer subjected his body to
the kind of temperature extremes mere
mortals can only imagine. He says he feels
most alive when he’s dicing with death.
succumbed to “the death zone” we
eventually dragged ourselves onto the
highest point on Earth.
“It was an incredible feeling to be the
highest humans on the planet, and those
few precious moments on top, with the
world at your feet, made all the pain and
hardship worthwhile.”
Like Meyer, architect, designer and
model Pablo Abellan Villastrigo is no
stranger to juggling the various disciplines
From Left jake wears Cagoule by Barbour. shirt by Farhi at My-Wardrobe.com. jumper, jake’s own. jeans by Gap. watch by Bremont. pablo wears suit by J Lindeberg. shirt by Paul Smith at my-wardrobe.com.
needed in order to rise above others in his
chosen field. After completing a masters in
architecture at Oxford and the Royal
College, he worked on projects for Michael
cuff links; key fob, both by vertu. peter wears shirt by Hugo Boss at my-wardrobe.com. suit by Austin Reed. tie by hackett. Hawker Beechcraft King Air B350 from www.silveraircraft.com
Hopkins Architects while juggling a
modelling career and founding his own
design company.
In-between modelling assignments,
he found himself working on more
unofficial commissions for celebrities,
fashion editors and urban start-ups. This
eventually led him to Manhattan where
he was to have the most exhilarating
experience of his working life.
“As the taxi pulled up on 72nd Street
and stopped outside the Dakota building
I hadn’t really realised where I was going,
but by the time the lift doors opened on the
seventh floor I realised it was going to be
very special. Seeing the home of two of the
“As far as exhilarating moments go, my most influential artists of the last century
best has to be reaching the summit of [John Lennon and Yoko Ono] had a huge
Everest at the age of 21,” he tells Esquire. impact on my creative life and made me
“We had spent over two months preparing
for the final summit assault; climbing up
question whether form should always
follow function.”
and down the mountain acclimatising our
bodies to the extremes of the cold and lack
of oxygen of the upper reaches of the
Bringing this kind of creative flair to
business is something only the top level of
entrepreneurs can do — Peter Leiman,
mountain. The summit was being battered
by ferocious storms and winds, while we
waited for a weather window.
“When it eventually appeared, over a
three-day period we made our dash for the
summit. The summit day itself was 22 hours
long, physically and mentally exhausting,
and required much more than I could ever
have imagined. After climbing through the
night along knife-edge ridges, up sheer
cliffs and stepping over the bodies of other,
My best moment has to
image courtesy of jake meyer
be reaching the summit
of Everest aged 21
government is one of them. As a mergers
and acquisitions investment banker at UBS
Warburg, he advised FTSE 100 companies
on strategy and led a team involved in the
start-up of an Asian low-cost airline.
He was also one of President Clinton’s
most respected advisors as part of the
advance staff at the White House in 2000.
Naturally, he gained his MBA from
Harvard and is the co-founder and now
managing director of Blink — Europe’s
first air-taxi service.
Carrying up to four passengers, Blink
jets provide access to more than 600
destinations throughout Europe — coupling
all the obvious benefits of private air travel
(door-to-door service and no chavs in
tracksuits sitting next to you) at prices
competitive with commercial business class.
Drawing on his considerable reserves
of passion, commitment and acumen, Peter
says his most exciting moment to date was
raising $30m to start Blink — then being
left in charge to run the company with his
co-founder.
“After seeing more than 60 different
investors, ranging from angel investors to
institutional private equity and venture
capitalists, we finally identified three
European investors who funded us. It was
daunting, but at the same time exhilarating
to be left in charge and empowered to run
the business considering that we had no
aviation or management experience — and
were fresh out of business school.”
So whether you work in an office, a
studio or up a mountain yourself, you can
be your own real action hero. All you need
to do is get stuck in.
esquire | promotion
share your
spirit of
adventure
For the chance to own the entire
collection of five handsets in the new
Vertu Ascent 2010 collection, all you
have to do is take a photograph of
yourself enjoying your most
exhilarating adventure or
adventurous experience. You can
interpret the term as loosely as you
like, all we ask is that you keep it the
right side of legal. Once you’re happy
with the results (no digital trickery
please) then upload it to www.vertu.
com before 30 June 2010, and stand
back and admire. The finalists will
be notified by email and the winner
will be announced at the Vertu and
Esquire event, details below.
exclusive
esquire
event
Join Esquire and Vertu on Tuesday
13 July for your chance to meet Jake,
Pablo and Peter, where they’ll be
talking about their fascinating life
and business experiences.
There will be delicious cocktails
and canapés served. We will also
be showcasing a selection of the top
images from Vertu’s Share Your
Spirit Of Adventure online gallery,
and the winner will be chosen and
announced. The event will take
place from 6.30pm to 9pm at
The Hempel, London, W2. If you
would like to attend, email your
name and number of tickets required
to events@esquire.co.uk and put
“VERTU” in the subject box.
The event is only open to those over
18 years and is named guest list only.
If demand for places exceeds venue
capacity, tickets will be allocated
on a ballot basis.