GENERATION Y DECLARES ITS FINANCE MANIFESTO FOR FUTURE
THE FINANCIAL services industry should be “a part of society, not apart from it”, said the next generation of City leaders as they set out their plans for righting past wrongs at Whitehall.
Politicians and regulators including Conservative MP Matthew Hancock and Prudential’s public affairs director Miles Celic supported TheCityUK-backed group as it launched its Next Generation Vision report – with extra encouragement from Boris Johnson via video footage shot in the London Mayor’s natural habitat at London Fashion Week.
“There has been a lack of trust in the industry but we are looking forwards. What sort of industry do we want to inherit?” said PwC manager Shujaat Khan.
As an insurance auditor, Khan is particularly interested in increasing transparency to stakeholders, but the group is also keen for the City to benefit communities as well as clients, and to renew the “my word is my bond” ethos for the digital age.
“This is an opportunity for younger voices to be heard,” added Clifford Chance lawyer Alan Mak, another of the 21 “Generation Y” professionals in the group that also includes Barclays’ head of renewables Gareth Miller and Freshfields associate Bim Afolami. So what’s next? “Spreading the word,” evangelised Mak. “This is the start of a new period of optimism in the City, because the next generation have ambition and hope.”
SELLING HIGH
TO NEWMARKET for another round of bloodstock sales starting this morning – this time, an auction of 1,400 racehorses currently in training.
Among the leading owners is Eddie Stobart chief executive Andrew Tinkler, who is selling 200 horses including his best two-year-old Tell Dad, who has won almost a quarter of a million pounds in prize money since April.
So why sell? “Even though there is lots of potential for Tell Dad as a three-year-old next year, Andrew wants to make his racing organisation a commercial enterprise,” said a mole – a perfectly plausible account of the man who rose from his start fitting doors in old people’s homes to building the haulage empire to a £500m turnover business.