Celebrating Sean Keating: ‘A bashed out obit’ for TXF, Proximo and Uxolo

Sean Keating died suddenly on 3 November at the age of 59. He was (at) the heart of editorial in TXF, Proximo and Uxolo since 2017. We want to celebrate him as a mentor, brilliant journalist and friend. His influence on us at Exile Group has been profound. But we will shout louder than usual to our clients and the wider world about him, while balancing that, to the extent we can, with his dislike of overblown prose. However, we will ignore his desire to stay in the background, because he can’t argue back.

Kindness, humanity, empathy, humour, a twinkle, great hugs, a classy ability to hold meetings in pubs, brilliance, razor sharp prose, stubbornness, reckless disregard for his own health, an heroic knack of supporting his friends and team, unshakable in integrity (while patiently allowing ‘marketing guff’ to be appended). These are all things said by friends and colleagues and journalists shocked to hear of his untimely death.

Sean mentored his peers and trainees alike. He guided and encouraged generations over 30 years in the industry. He had an ability to listen and to hold an argument and was a man who always had our backs and inspired loyalty. A stubborn [man], but never too pessimistic, grumpy in the mornings, not so much later in the day. A master of the expletive (sometimes) deleted. Somebody in whose gang you wanted to be a member.

The ‘some gubbins’ he ‘bashed out’

Sean came to TXF as editor in January 2017 and was the founding editor of Proximo and Uxolo Development Finance for the Exile Group. He spent three decades immersed in the project, export and asset and development finance markets, understood them, the people who worked them, what they did and how to explain what happened to finance the stuff that made the world work. He was great at it.

Sean wrote and edited at weird times, in strange places (pubs, obviously, his garage or garden, the Oval, hospital bedsides, sometimes even the office). He kept our editorial engine going and was our safety blanket (putting out fires, providing comfort). When he got the bit between his teeth, he would argue a point and hold power to account. Sometimes he burst bubbles and put noses out of joint. Most times, he just wrote things that made the dry seem more interesting, and the interesting, pithier.

Most recently, Sean had been under the hood with Uxolo Development finance, examining the ways multilateral development banks were able to best use their capital and raise money on it, and what they were and were not doing. Whether that was the World Bank’s efforts with ‘outcome bonds’ or what wasn’t yet happening debt for nature swaps (one for the pipeline), hybrid capital, blended finance initiatives, Africa debt, he was always curious, always questioning, always eviscerating jargon, ready with a punchy title. 

Here are a few classics. His first article for TXF, a feature on Turkey, one on h2 green steel for Proximo, another on COP26, an EV infra project insight, and the real impact of Biden pausing LNG projects. 

Sean was sparing with his compliments to us on editorial. Long phone calls maybe, but not long emails. The apogee was ‘quite good’, or ‘well done’ (Max Thompson alleges he once got a ‘the dog’s […]’, but that was five years ago). For me, growling about people not returning calls, he replied: ‘know you are loved, everyone wants to speak to you.’

Never one to put himself forward to speak publicly at Exile group events, he was an excellent moderator and interviewer on stage, unfazed one time by his tooth flying across the room while mid debate. He interviewed gently, but relentlessly. 

Many financial journalists in the industry were given their first break by Sean, and he was a great mentor.

Thomas Hopkins, deputy editor at Proximo, shares his thoughts 

“Sean was an exceptional journalist, able to combine the essential components of reporting and writing that make up a journalist’s job. He was able to put those he interviewed at their ease while always driving towards the heart of a story. As a writer, he valued concision and would pare down prose to cover stories with maximum clarity and without extraneous detail. His wit and charming irreverence were ever-present in his own writing and would enliven the articles of those he edited. To work with him was to know that the wording of each line of every single article mattered, even with pieces that needed to be ‘bashed out’ to meet a deadline, to use a favourite phrase of his.

As an editor, Sean always tried to preserve the voice of the writer he was editing. Adjustments to articles were made only where he felt they were truly necessary. His feedback to reporters was characteristically frank but was always fair in its appraisal of a piece of work. Because Sean praised and criticised with equal honesty, a complement from him about an article was enduringly meaningful. He also had an ability to steer reporters towards the most interesting angle on a given article.

Above all, Sean offered friendship to his fellow journalists. He liked to maintain a mildly irascible persona, but was, in truth, a deeply kind man. He was at the very core of Exile’s editorial team, providing wry humour and unfailing scepticism to weekly meetings, while inspiring hard work and journalistic integrity in his colleagues. Conversations with Sean about all manner of subjects will be missed by every journalist fortunate enough to have worked alongside him.”

Before Sean joined Exile Group, he was at Euromoney, starting in 1995.

The ‘before’ times, featuring words from Tom Nelthorpe

“I go back to 1999 with Sean - he took over Project Finance Magazine in September that year when it was on the brink of closing, and was able to turn it around quickly. Before that he edited Asset Finance (big ticket leasing), which he turned around, despite it occupying one of the most opaque corners of the market.

Project Finance wasn't a large operation, there was a lot of competition, and it never really got the investment it deserved, but it was influential. He made it possible for me to travel to New York, where we made the magazine pretty successful, and where I stayed for 10 years. He turned the magazine over to me in November 2001, and he worked on a few other projects in my group, including Corporate Location and for the WEF. He was back as managing editor of Project Finance in 2003, and we co-ran things across the Atlantic until 2012.

He left Euromoney to spend more time swimming and working on a book, he said.  Two years later, he was back with Global Investor and Trade Finance, after its staff all left to form TXF. I left in 2015, started working with the TXF guys from 2017, and badgered Dan Sheriff into hiring Sean (to be fair, he needed very little badgering). 

Sean's personal gifts have a lot of witnesses. He was a gent. His professional gifts shouldn't be overlooked. He could make two (admittedly decent) journalists look like they were doing the work of 10, he had very keen commercial instincts, and he wasn't afraid of big techy projects, even if he was quite unsparing when they didn't work. I don't know anyone who received more hospital passes in publishing and came out smiling.”

Last word…

Sean’s legacy is in Exile Group’s DNA, and across our teams. He signed off his last conference wishing to meet everyone in the bar next time they were in town. His chosen avatar, in lieu of an authorial photo, a shadow figure in a hat, is already making its appearance in our events artwork going forward. He will remain there in the background, and in our guts. Hearts would sound better, but that is mawkish, and his liver, we were tickled to learn at his funeral, along with his other donated organs, evidently lives on.

Most of all, though, Sean was a family man, and he will be dearly missed by his partner Emma, and his children Seamus and Molly, and his lovely extended family.

Sean Patrick Keating, 10 February 1965 to 3 November 2024.

 

And one more thing…

The Cockpit, the tiny, de-facto London editorial headquarters back in the day, was renamed ‘the Keating Arms’ to celebrate Sean’s departure from Euromoney. 

We’re welcoming his friends from over the years to raise a glass to him with us on Tuesday 3 December at 17:00-19:00 (St Andrew's Hill - it will be cold outside so wrap up well!). 

 

And another thing

Donations in memory of Sean can be made to Crisis