South Korea: Macquarie man’s highway dreams
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Opinion

South Korea: Macquarie man’s highway dreams

Word reaches us from Seoul of a fabulous new career direction for Macquarie’s Korea head, John Walker.



John Walker-400

Not content with running the diverse Korean businesses of the Australian banking and infrastructure group, he has now set about becoming a rock star.

Walker’s album 12 Bridges was self-published in Korea recently, and while Euromoney has not yet heard it, we have seen the CD packaging and artwork. Walker’s motif is the double life he apparently leads: next to a picture of him in formal suit and tie, here’s another of him in full Springsteen mode, driving away at an acoustic guitar.

And just across the gatefold, here he is lying on his back in sky-blue and bleach ripped jeans, eyes closed blissfully with only an electric guitar (a Gibson SG, unless we’re very much mistaken) for solace.

It’s a crying shame we’ve not yet heard it, as the lyrics (“Cause I’m out on that desert highway/The highway of my mind”) appear to be a unique blend of rock tropes and vital infrastructure development.

“Music creates a vast bridge over the normal traffic of our lives which can carry all our thoughts and feelings to others around us”, writes Walker in the liner notes. “I hope I build 12 bridges with this album.” Twelve bridges? That’s a lot of tolls, even for Macquarie.

In any event, if you don’t catch this album, never fear, for it appears there may be more. Walker’s album title also features this ominously suggestive promise as a sub-head: “The First Album.”

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