WHEN THE TWIN TOWERS FELL ON 11TH SEPTEMBER 2001, TONY WORSLEY’S 28-MAN NEW YORK TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANCY ESCAPED WITHOUT HUMAN CASUALTY, BUT LOST BOTH OF ITS MAJOR CUSTOMERS IN THE AFTERMATH… “My first thought was one of terrible sadness for all the friends we lost. It was horrible. You could see the dust in the air. You could smell the burning plastic. Our offices were a mile or so from the Towers, overlooking Carnegie Hall, but it was just so intense, it felt so close,” Tony remembers bitterly.
“The days and weeks that followed were ones of mayhem, confusion, searching and a constant state of emergency. It was all about the people. Where were they? Who had perished? Who could still be found?” he adds hauntingly. But as the days passed it became clear that despite being fortunate by having evaded human tragedy, there would be a commercial toll on Tony’s business because of the consequences of the terrorist attack. The firm’s two principal clients were Morgan Stanley – based in Twin Tower One - and Amex, housed in a neighbouring building. Both had suffered terrible losses and so had lost touch with their suppliers and customers. “The Verizon data centre went down. There was no mobile signal south of 42nd Street. We lost contact with our clients. They were in turmoil, communications were down, the priority was people. Our business began to shrink, to disappear. Cash was running out. It was untenable. My Visa was up for renewal – the other partners were American – so I took the decision to leave and became a silent partner,” Tony recounts. Recovering from an ordeal like this could take its toll, but Tony had fought with the Marines in the Falklands in 1982 and this, along with a few other challenges along the way had given him an attitude of perseverance and durability.
www.biznetwales.co.uk
#15