John Conlin, marketing director of Suffolk Capital Management LLC, can now count himself among the “Deadliest Warriors.” Mr. Conlin is scheduled to appear in an upcoming episode of the TV reality series, lending the show his expertise from his service in combat with the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles, an elite unit in the British army.
The program — whose third season on Spike TV, a division of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc., is scheduled to begin July 20 — typically pits two veterans from legendary military forces that never fought against each other in real life. It pitches the two veterans as adversaries, each using his own weaponry and battlefield tactics of a chosen era in simulated combat conditions to determine who is the deadliest warrior. The show gives most of the rest of us armchair warriors a taste of combat experience and tactics.
The episode, whose broadcast date hasn't been scheduled yet, features Rastrakumar Rai, a retired Gurkha sergeant from the 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles, against Nick Hughes, a former French Foreign Legionnaire from Australia.
Mr. Conlin — whose New York-based money management firm has $3 billion under management focusing on growth-oriented long equity strategies — served as an on-camera adviser to Mr. Rai and an expert on Gurkha history, tradition and combat tactics. Mr. Conlin said his role came about because Spike TV contacted the U.K. Ministry of Defense to “recruit” a Gurkha expert. In turn, ministry officials contacted Mr. Conlin, he said. “The Ministry of Defense asked me to do this (program) as favor to make sure this is accurate,” Mr. Conlin said.
