Shooting for the stars

One of the most all-encompassing aspects of my childhood was exploring the great outdoors: playing in the forest, sport at school, and walking the dog in the Northumberland countryside with my family. The landscape is beautiful up there and I feel very fortunate to have been brought up in such an idyllic setting - although it is much colder than Jersey!

I loved my time at Sedbergh. It gave me a well-rounded education academically and socially (as those who know me will testify, I like to talk) and of course it was a fantastic platform to learn and play sports. It helped mould me into the person I am today: ambitious and driven with a love for the outdoors - and an avid rugby fan.

I really enjoyed physics at A-Level. I felt I would likely go down the finance route, but rather than pursuing three years of accountancy at university, I wanted to learn more about the stars first. Physics with Astrophysics seemed a solid choice.

Money (not many physicists enjoy the stellar careers of Sir Patrick Moore or Brian Cox)! On a serious note, training as an accountant seemed a good first step as my degree came to an end and I started to look at options in the financial services sector. 

I enjoyed my IoD Chartered Director training and would thoroughly recommend it. Coming from an accountancy background, but knowing I wanted to move to a Managing Director (MD) role, I felt this qualification would add a broader technical value to my skill set; and it did exactly that, in areas such as leadership, strategy and corporate governance. I also met a great group of people through the IoD network, and we still enjoy meeting up when we can.

KPMG gave me a great start to my career, and I was fortunate to work with different client groups during my time there. By the time I qualified, I knew that I enjoyed the private client side of the finance industry, so it was a natural progression for me to move into that specialism.

This was the first time I held a multi-jurisdictional role, and it was a great learning experience in terms of how to communicate with different jurisdictions and consider their unique working practices and cultures. My role during this period also started to span across more areas of leadership and I was very lucky to have a brilliant mentor to support me. The experience of living and working in a completely different culture during my time in Hong Kong was fantastic. It was my first expat move – I even got married out there – and it rekindled my love of travel and exploration.

I was thrilled to accept the MD role at Praxis, initially in its Netherlands office and more recently in Jersey. Moving country during Covid-19, with an 18-month daughter and a baby on the way was no mean feat for my wife and me, but it was worth it. I loved my time in the Netherlands, and my time in the Jersey office is no different.

Praxis could not have welcomed me more warmly, and our culture and work-life balance is something I take great pride in. As an independent company listed on TISE and with significant staff ownership, our ownership model is increasingly rare in our sector.

Being Group Finance Director for several years was a great foundation, which taught me to multi-task and see the bigger picture. I would also say that the IoD Chartered Director training gave me an excellent technical grounding to help me with the move.  

As Managing Director, the buck stops with me and that of course can be stressful at times, but I love what I do and the perspective I have gained.

Speaking Spanish: I have always loved Spain (particularly its wine!) but have always struggled with learning languages. I have recently signed up to an app to try to get better, but it is definitely a slow burner! 

The sun is shining, the kids are behaving, there is a nice glass of red in my hand and a steak on the BBQ. And a smiling wife – happy wife equals happy life. What more could I ask for?