#70 Leading a responsible investment revolution, Robert Gardner Investment Director St. James's Place Wealth Management

Robert Gardner joins Purposely Podcast to share his fascinating story, from a childhood in inflation ravaged Argentina to disrupting the pension industry through his successful start-up ‘Redington’.

Rob is currently Director of Investment at St. James’s Place Wealth Management, a highly respected visionary, Rob is leading a responsible investment revolution in wealth management.

Rob is responsible for planning, growing and protecting the wealth of over c850,000 clients in the UK and Asia. St. James’s Place manages over c£150 billon of client funds, Rob’s main goal is to ensure that these clients have enough money to live a long and prosperous life, at the same time using this money to be a force for good as delivering financial wellbeing in a‘world worth living in.’

Rob started his career in investment banking at Deutsche Bank working in foreign exchange. Rob then moved to Merrill Lynch where he helped pioneer a way for pension funds to manage their long-term interest rates and inflation risks. In 2006 he resigned to become an entrepreneur and co-founded Redington, “we wanted to do for pensions what Jamie Oliver did for school food”. Redington today is one of the largest investment consultants in the UK, employing over 200 employees in London, Bristol and Beijing. While Rob no longer works at Redington but remains a shareholder in that business. During his time at Redington, Rob also co-founded a charity RedSTART focused on delivering financial education to children across the UK especially those who need it most. Rob talks about his personal commitment to RedSTART’s mission and how they plan to play a key role ‘ in planting the seed for the financial security for young people across the UK.

I normally ask my guests about organisational mission but it struck me that you have your own personal mission?

‘Yes that’s right, over the last few years I have used a concept called Ikigai (Japanese philosophy) to decide my personal mission, it mapped what I love doing, what I think I'm good at, what will enable me to make an impact paired with what the world needs. Ideally something I can get paid for and suits my skills - the epicentre of that is financial well being in a world worth living in. So if you look at my career and the things I do, they basically fall under either helping to create financial wellbeing or helping towards ensuring a world worth living in.’

You spent some of your childhood in Argentina?

‘

Yes, my parents were teachers and moved there to take up roles at the end of 1985 when I was seven years old. One of the interesting things about Argentina in that period is that inflation was running at over 30% a month. So imagine being paid and then at the end of the month your spending power is 30% less than it was the month prior. Incredibly prices would change every day and Mum and Dad would get paid a wad of cash and we would then go and do the monthly shop. In the evening, we drove to this house, I don't know if you've ever watched a show called Narcos, this was a scary house big metal bars on the windows and Dobermans in the garden and my dad and one of the other members of staff would go up to change their money into US dollars. Then that night we’d head home with our US dollars and hide them typically in the old 35 millimetre film canisters and hide them around the house. So remember, I'm seven years old, my sister's five, and this is normal and I why are we doing that?! Well, there are two reasons, one was inflation and the second thing is that people didn't trust putting their money in banks.’