Which messages reach me, and which wait

Before you write, it may help to know how I sort what arrives. Directorship enquiries come first. If you chair a nomination committee or are running a search for a non-executive role outside retail, send me the company's name, the committee that needs a member, how often it meets and whether it buys from, sells to or competes with Halvorne or our larger suppliers. I clear conflicts before agreeing to a call, and I would rather decline early than late. Retail and payments technologists come next: I owe much of my practice to people who answered my questions about peak load, gateway failures and deleting data, and I try to repay that with an hour on the phone. Speaking requests from retail, payments and governance audiences are welcome when the subject is one I have written about here.

Some messages I set aside unanswered. Product and services pitches belong with Halvorne's procurement team. Unpublished results, live security matters and questions about investing in Halvorne are things I cannot discuss. Executive approaches can wait until the store programme ends in mid-2027. Everything else gets a personal reply, normally within seven days.