Bankers are people too!

Where might you find a bank president, an ambassador, an attorney, a journalist, a café owner, and other assorted characters in a single place? On stage, of course! The UB Players, an expat theater group, just put on Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. It was a great show, and to my surprise, I recognized about half the cast.

One of the advantages of living in a place like Ulaanbaatar is the mix of people you meet in day-to-day life. You bump into them everywhere. I last saw Sergeant Trotter, played by the President of TDB Bank, Randolph Koppa, at a workshop on housing finance. TDB has a trade finance guarantee with IFC and hosts the Mongolian SME Toolkit, an online business planning tool for small businesses. I didn’t expect to see him trying to solve murders!

The part of Mrs. Ralston was played by Jocelyn Steiner, an American attorney who contributed to the IFC/World Bank’s Doing Business project in Mongolia.

Another familiar face was Brigitte Cummings, who not only produced the show but also played the feisty Mrs. Boyle. A seasoned veteran of Mongolia (11 years and counting!), Brigitte owns Ulaanbaater’s famous Sachers Café and runs the Hash House Harriers in warmer months. She introduced me to Mongolia’s spectacular outdoors in my first week here. I didn’t know that she also produces and acts in plays.

The next time I see Sergeant Trotter we will probably be talking business. How refreshing to see bankers and ambassadors and lawyers and journalists working together, on stage, for the sheer pleasure of it.

And the ending? You’ll have to go see the play for yourself.