An homage to to the Financial Times Global Pension Correspondent is due. March 26th was when Jo last posted in the FT , since when Jo has been in Australia, deservedly remote from the discordant clamour of Britain’s pension scene.

Having had no chance to poach her stories for a month, I’m resorting to write a story about her absence!

5 good things to say about Jo Cumbo

Firstly, she is an absolute pro; she has a rule-set when it comes to professional conduct and don’t you dare step outside it. I’ve tried it on a couple of times over the years and though I’ve lived to tell the tale, I did not come out of it well!

Secondly, she has fantastic energy. At the end of a long day at a recent conference, we were standing together listening to someone drone on and Jo suddenly took off, speeding across the exhibition hall and capturing a hapless pension manager for an interview, like a cheetah dragging down a gazelle. He’d been Cumboed.

Thirdly, she is quite fearless in her questioning, refusing to be waylaid by Public Relations people, she goes to the right person, asks the right question and that’s why her columns are full of fact and not opinion.

Fourthly, she looks for pension stories, she does not let them come to her. So many journalists rely on “me too” press releases. Jo goes out and gets her own material.

Fifthly and finally, Jo is at a very young age, the storyteller of her generation. Her narrative is followed by her journalistic peers. If you want an angle, see what Jo has said on Twitter, search her on the FT website.

Zero bad things to say about Jo Cumbo

I would like to write a balanced article and write five bad things about Jo, but I haven’t got bad things to say.

She just is a bloody good journalist who we need around the gaff. In the next few days she will be back and the presses will be clacking again with her scoops. Well sort of.

If you are scanning your tweets Mrs Cumbo and get to read this, know that there is one hack blogger out there not ashamed to say that he is struggling without you!