Neil is a journalist and author. He is a member of the Society of Authors and Association of Lending Rights.
Neil is London correspondent and columnist of The Business Times, Singapore, a leading Asian business publication. He writes about European economic, financial and political developments. More recently Neil has also been an active writer in the healthcare industry.
Regular news backgrounders cover currency, bond and stock markets. BT and other published articles appear in NeilBehrmann.net .
Neil was a prolific London-based special correspondent of theWall Street Journal, for more than two decades. He concentrated on commodities, mining and derivatives markets. Commodity articles for the WSJ included diamonds, gold, platinum, silver, oil, copper, coffee and cocoa. He also wrote features on hedge funds, personal finance, property, sports business and travel.
Major scoops include the $3 billion Sumitomo copper fraud in 1996; the $900 million collapse of the International Tin Council; the $24 billion South African debt default in the mid-eighties and investigation into the lost millions of former Philippines dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.
News breaking features include the Nick Leeson Barings fraud in 1995, Kerviel of Societe Generale and rivalry and scandals in the diamond market. Neil has also become a specialist on major hedge fund frauds. He investigated the Bayou and PAAM scams and the Madoff Ponzi scheme.
Fiction
Scoops and investigations into underhand mining, hedge fund dealings and other financial scams provided meat for Neil’s books. In particular, Neil’s knowledge and insight on Russia’s role in the metals, diamonds and mining market s helped him devise the plots of Trader Jack- The Story of Jack Miner and Jack of Diamonds . More information can be found on Neil’s author pages on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
Butterfly Battle
Illustrating Neil’s love of nature, his novel for older children is very different. Butterfly Battle- The Story of the Great Insect War was relaunched in 2015 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. The opening scene is a computer game on the battle. The anti-war fantasy is for children aged 8 to 12. The book received brilliant reviews from publications, teachers, parents and children. Besides promoting conservation and delving into the mystery of life and death, Butterfly Battle teaches boys and girls planning and strategy.
Other media
Neil has been interviewed on BBC television and radio and other stations on diamonds, commodities and mining. He contributed a lengthy explanation on gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) for The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing by John Katz.
Neil has also written special articles and syndicated pieces for: Asian Finance, Business Day (SA), Business Report (SA), Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Exchange Traded Gold, Financial World, Financial Weekly, Financial Post (now National Post in Canada), Guardian, Healthcare Business International, Independent, Institutional Investor, Investors Daily, Melbourne Age, Mineweb.com, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Rand Daily Mail, South China Morning Post, Sydney Morning Herald and The Times. Other publications include Business (UK), Strategy, Sunday Times (SA), Commodities-Now, New Zealand Herald, Paydirt, Ambassador (the UK MBA magazine) and Gold Mining Journal.