Purpose, Perspective and the Power of Kindness

I’m a Jersey Bean, born and raised.  I attended Trinity Primary School, then Grainville and transferred to Hautlieu at 14, where I sat my GCSEs and A-levels.

Trinity school was very small when I was there.  I recall that most classes combined two-year groups just to have a sufficient teaching group.  We lived very close to the Zoo, which we used to visit regularly.  I am still in touch with a good number of my friends from primary school.  Nowadays we see each other most often on the side lines of a pitch, watching our children play sport.

I was quiet as a child but watched and learned intently and I think I was and still am, very analytical. It was a culture shock to move to Grainville – just the size of the school took some getting used to.  I look back most fondly on my school days at Hautlieu, which is where I came out of my shell and started to grow-up as a person.

Throughout my childhood I did not have any thought on a career or profession for the future.  Whilst at Hautlieu I attended an open day at Ernst & Young.  Those of us that signed up comprised a mix of people with a genuine interest in accountancy and business and some that just wanted an afternoon out of lessons.  The latter group were disappointed because the open day included an aptitude test.  I managed to score well and was invited back for interviews, which ultimately led to accepting a job and the start of my career in financial services.

I count myself very lucky to have had the opportunity with Ernst & Young.  I was unsure about university and so the opportunity to start work and progress a qualification was very attractive.  Ernst & Young had only started taking on school leavers a couple of years earlier and I knew some of those people who spoke well about their experience.

Looking back, it was the perfect environment for me. There was a lot of very intelligent people to learn from and definitely a “work-hard, play-hard” attitude that ran through the whole team.  I was busy studying and enjoying the variety of audit assignments but also starting to be aware of how good teams function and in particular supporting each other to achieve results.

I also recollect how a good sense of humour helped get through the working week.  Audit might not be a glamourous role, but most of my memories are about the fun we had whilst getting the work done.  Midway through my time at Ernst & Young I went travelling for six months and did a very similar trip again once I had left the firm.

The biggest lesson from my time with Ernst & Young, is understanding what “good” looks like.  It’s something I have reminisced about with others.  It was a valuable lesson early in my career.

MIFA was a well-established trust company, and I started in the Capital Markets team.  I was looking after accounting tasks for some very interesting transactions - CDOs, CLOs and securitisations.  Within a few years the business decided to centralise the accountants and I was part of a small leadership group tasked with making that work.

It was actually a very gentle exercise, mostly involving coordination, knowledge sharing and resource support.  This first small outing into a role which included leadership was a positive experience. Managing the change for the team was not too onerous, because there was general buy-in to the aim.

I had been with MIFA six years, when the firm was acquired by State Street.  This was probably the first major M&A deal in Jersey’s trust and fund industry.  Culturally, State Street was very different, and it was my first experience of a very different kind of leadership.  There seemed to be a few scary characters in the US, with some of the bang-the-desk and “just get it done” style. 

My role became more functional and focused on Financial Reporting, next to a colleague leading Fund Accounting.  State Street already had a large outsource centre in Hangzhou, China and I was tasked to build a team in Hangzhou and then move work from our European offices.  

I travelled to Hangzhou three times over 18 months to recruit, train and review the team and operation. 

I was able to gain a lot of experience in a short space of time, including working with a big cross-section of leadership styles.  This experience definitely started to sow the seeds on the type of leadership style I wanted for myself.

Change was in the air back in 2012/13! 

Senior members of the legacy MIFA business had recently moved to Sanne, with a new private equity investment being injected into that business.  An opportunity was put to me to join Sanne in the Real Estate team.  Capital Market deals (where most of my experience lay) had been hugely impacted by the 2008 Credit Crunch.  It was time to learn something new and the entrepreneurial team spirit at Sanne offered the perfect environment.

The Real Estate team was quite small at the time but grew very quickly.  The directors were involved in all aspects of running the division, although I had a primary focus on the accounting team.  

I quickly discovered that tax was a significant part of structuring considerations and consequently that good governance required a thorough understanding of tax papers.  During my early years in the Real Estate team, tax grew from an area of interest to an in-depth understanding.  I’d read the structuring papers and then would research the legislation and actively build my network.  Ultimately this interest led to me joining the Tax Committee of the Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF).

Alongside tax, I found the asset class very interesting, and it offered great variety, owing to the range of property assets and different strategies employed by different asset managers.  As we expanded to Real Assets from Real Estate, infrastructure (increasingly taking the form of green energy investment) and natural capital became part of the picture.  My interest in the natural environment was now increasingly applicable to the work I was involved with.

Our team was very successful and grew continuously.  Sanne was a Plc from 2015 and so the leadership requirements within a division, had to be closely allied to the corporate strategy.  I found the challenge motivating and was fortunate to have a fantastic team to work with. 

I was able to visit a large number of the firms’ jurisdictional offices in the early years.  The relationships built made a significant difference in the ease of navigating a role with global responsibilities. 

I also found that I continued to focus on my strengths and provided teams with a lot of regulatory and tax support, including exploring opportunities and threats when legislation changed. 

The overriding challenge I faced in my role was that as the firm and our capabilities grew, so did the size and complexity of the client mandates.  It was therefore critical to keep learning, which included building relationships with an increasingly large network and in particular to learn from the leadership teams within businesses acquired by Sanne. 

A race to scale was taking place across the fund admin industry.  The opportunity and challenge were to marry together the knowledge and experience of teams across the world and deliver the best service offering in the market.  I was very much up for the challenge.

I think leadership has evolved over the past decade to be far more aware of global opportunities and threats.  Jersey competes globally for domicile of funds and structures, and I feel that across the industry there has been a good reaction to the competition from new financial centres. 

Within the fund and corporate admin firms there has been significant consolidation over the past decade. Emerging from the activity we have a small number of truly global firms, but alongside that it is noteworthy that smaller and medium-sized firms continue to thrive.

For many firms, the last decade was a race to scale. Looking forward it is now a technology race.  I believe that this is well recognised by industry leadership.

The Jersey governments competitiveness programme has landed timely and good leadership can deliver the strong collaboration between industry, the government and the regulator.  I’ve been encouraged with the outputs from the programme to date.

It is easy to find distraction with how quickly the industry is evolving and trying to navigate the long list of market and business risks, but I still believe that at a basic level good leadership in our industry will always start with the client experience. 

We are in the business of client service – it should still be at the heart of decision making.

The acquisition of Sanne completed in August 2022. Such a large change did prompt wider career thoughts for me.  I recall being on summer holiday in 2023 and turning over the NED opportunity in my head.  My line manager at Apex was open to the discussion, and I’m pleased to say that the career change evolved in a way that worked for all, with clients first in our thoughts. 

To date, I am pleased with life as a NED.  It has afforded me greater flexibility, whilst retaining some valued relationships with clients and administration teams.

The mandates I support comprise funds and/or portfolios of asset holding vehicles.  To be a successful NED today, I think the key responsibilities with a portfolio like mine, is to understand the client, the structuring papers, applicable regulation and the strategies for the fund or individual assets.  My portfolio is very transactional, so being organised and supporting the administrators, lawyers, auditors to meet deadlines is important.

As a NED I can drive high standards of governance and good quality corporate records.  It is particularly important with real estate assets, because it is often beneficial for the structure to be acquired, to purchase the asset, and thus the records of the entity will form part of buyer due diligence, in addition to the asset itself.

For several years, I felt a lot of good conversations had taken place in relation to Sustainable Finance, but action often takes longer.  I felt strongly that Jersey’s financial services industry needed to walk-the-walk on sustainability if it wanted to succeed in attracting sustainable capital.

I think those hours spent at the Zoo in my early childhood installed the importance of nature.  Here was a chance to put some time and energy into an initiative that had some big potential.

Things really got moving with the Greening Jersey Trust when a small group of us, including Tom McKenna from Jersey Finance, started to explore a very similar vision.  We outlined how we might engineer coordinating financial services firms, to deliver an impact greater than the sum of parts.  This would be possible owing to the potential scale of the initiative and thus the size of projects that could be supported.  It would also exhibit an industry making a positive impact.

Once we felt we had the right solution and gained the green light from Jersey Finance leadership, attention turned to rallying a network of industry friends and contacts to sign-up their firms and share in our vision for the Greening Jersey Trust.

The reaction from Jersey’s financial services firms was excellent.  Greening Jersey is now in its second year and I’m very proud to be part of the initiative.  Whilst there is a big focus on the environmental benefits, we deliver significant volunteering opportunities throughout the year and thus a social and networking benefit to our sector too.

My advice to start with is to take pride in everything you do.  Whether it is a small task or a large assignment, put in the time and effort to deliver a quality outcome.  Competence is a cornerstone.  If you can earn a reputation for quality and high standards, it won’t go unnoticed from those around you.

When I consider my career and influences, I can recall Audit Partners, Administration Directors and CEOs who led by supporting their teams.  I do think that is one of the key aspects of good leadership.  If possible, find your formal and informal mentors and guides within your network.

One initiative which makes the transition easier is the IoD’s mentor scheme which I am taking part in this year.  It promotes sharing experiences and having someone to bounce ideas with from outside of the workplace.

When considering mindset, be confident in what you know and ask questions if you are unsure, need more detail or are curious for more information.  Above all though, be kind.  Kindness will build and maintain a valuable network and there will be many times when you need to dip into that network for a favour or support.

I have four children who keep me very busy outside of work.  I’m able to enjoy sports and activities with them, which is great and we value our family holidays together.  In the summer I increasingly find myself spending time pottering in the garden, which is a hobby handed down from my Mum.

The sport I am most passionate about is surfing.  I live close to St Ouens and try to surf throughout the year.  There is something about surfing that allows your mind to just fall into a relaxed state, and it always feels like fun, the same way it did when I was young.

Since starting life as a NED and working from home full time, I have listened to more music than I have done in many years.  My office has a vinyl turntable, speakers and a couple of guitars, which get used between Teams meetings.

I run and cycle a bit too.  There are some fantastic routes nearby, including being able to see the great work from Trees for Life around Val de la Mare reservoir, which is one of my favourites for a run.  I need a good dose of exercise every week to offset all the chocolate I eat!