Stonehage Fleming

After 12 very happy years with Stonehage Fleming and nearly 41 years in asset and wealth management, I will be leaving full time corporate life today, October 31st. This was a decision originally arrived at, after much consideration, 12 months ago, but I have been pleased to extend my time here firstly to support our incoming CEO Stuart Parkinson and most recently to lead the communications around the exciting new partnership with Corient and Stanhope Capital Group. This accomplished, it is a natural moment to step away. As someone with no natural instinct or particular passion for investments, I count myself extraordinarily fortunate to have found a niche building businesses and brands in a market where a well-articulated narrative can make a profound difference. I’m really proud of having contributed to the development of some very fine firms - Newton, Mellon, and Heartwood/Handelsbanken - and I cannot imagine a better place for my last long-term assignment than Stonehage Fleming. With the firm’s remarkable service proposition and geographic reach, and a collegiate culture championed by professionals of the highest calibre, I will miss the business (and most of all the people) enormously and wish them every success in the new venture. Special shout out to Anton Sternberg for giving me the opportunity, Marguerite Mastenbroek for being the best business partner I could have wished for and Matthew Fleming for 11 years of friendship and inspiration. Thanks too to some of our valued agency partners: Gay Collins and the team at Montfort Communications, who have supported us so well for over a decade, and Lavinia Culverhouse and Paul Brooks for their contributions to the development of the Stonehage Fleming brand. I’ve also been privileged to work with genuine giants and industry leaders (Stewart Newton and Ronald O'Hanley), as well as entrepreneurs and game changers (David Lough and Simon Lough and Giuseppe Ciucci). Thanks to them all (and special thanks to Stewart because it was at Newton that I met my wife Jo) and to all those too numerous to mention who have been sources of wise counsel, inspiration, support and friendship from Bern to Boston, London to Cape Town and Tunbridge Wells to Toronto! Retirement is a less useful term than it once was. I am excited about developing my Coaching and Communications practice, finding ways to demonstrate my social capital and simply having greater flexibility in where and when I work. I look forward to staying in touch!