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Advocate for Leeds
In the latest of our regular series profiling the leading business figures of Leeds and the Yorkshire region, we meet Howard Kew, chief executive of Leeds Financial Services Initiative (LFSI).
Tell us about your formative years.
Primary education was in Leeds before my father's career moved the family to the home counties. My school debating skills were honed on defending the evolutionary approach Don Revie brought to winning football matches. Coming back to Leeds as a student, I was drawn by the University of Leeds's remarkable ability to attract bands just before they move on to playing in stadiums. My first year had The Ramones, The Clash, The Jam, Dire Straits and U2 all playing at the Students Union. I became involved in organising the concerts and was somewhat more committed to that than studying mathematics. However, I did graduate successfully and came to financial services in my late 20s after teaching in Wetherby and then working as a tour guide developing my highly transferable skill base!
My first financial services role was an IT job at Yorkshire Building Society, working as a trainee programmer at a time when the industry was leading UK business into desktop computing and was training the people to do it.
However, I was quickly assigned to an embryonic Treasury department and became involved in the business side rather than just the computers. It was an exciting time – though perhaps a little tainted with hindsight – as the banks and building societies were developing their capability and sophistication.
The next move was across to the Leeds (then "and Holbeck") Building Society where I started to really concentrate on the Treasury profession – passing the exams and eventually becoming the society's Treasurer. It was also the period when I married Anne and our two wonderful daughters Grace and Freya came along. Though the girls are becoming more and more independent as teenagers, they remain at the centre of our lives. Meanwhile it's good to see both of my former employers holding up well in the current financial storm – showing the advantages of mutuality and of focus on core competencies!
I finally left the building society sector to take up an opportunity in Sheffield where Norwich Union were setting up their own bank and needed a Treasurer to complete their senior management team – a move that eventually led to me becoming finance director of Norwich Union Personal Finance, based in York. We had staff in York, Sheffield and Norwich, which led to logistical challenges but it was a high-energy period as we built a new part of the business. During this period I led several high-value transactions, working with international investment banks, investment funds and reinsurance companies.
Tell us about LFSI and how you came to the organisation.
Leeds Financial Services grew as a membership organisation that promotes and supports the development of the financial and business services sector. Last year, a contract with Yorkshire Forward was agreed, which enabled the recruitment of a professional team to build upon the contacts and networks that LFSI has regionally, nationally and internationally. The aim is to protect the strength of the sector and develop business for the benefit of the sector across the whole of the newly formed Leeds City region – which includes the cities of York, Bradford and Wakefield. I was strongly attracted to the chief executive role as an advocate of the region and as a case study of someone who has had a successful finance career working in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York whilst maintaining my home and family in Leeds throughout. Having arrived, the first job was to recruit a small team and set out our strategy – a stage that is just completing now as we move into delivery of the plan.
My main aim for LFSI is to work with our existing members, and those in the 11 local authority areas now included through the city region remit, to maximise the economic value in the region. I aim to achieve this by building upon the core strengths which have grown out of the corporate financial community in central Leeds during the last 15 years or so.
Delivering this will benefit businesses in the financial sector, their customers and the communities in which they operate. I see this happening in two main ways: firstly by bringing business from elsewhere into our region through promoting the excellence of the professional skills and services we offer and, secondly, by attracting new businesses into the region. I aim to achieve the latter by nurturing greater interaction between our members and between different participants in the economy.
Explain your business philosophy.
Understand your customer and deliver to the highest standard you can whilst maintaining a commercial business model. Quality delivery is always dependent on people – people who need to be motivated and understand why and how they contribute to business success.
If you weren't doing the job you are doing now, where might you be – or where might you like to have been?
My CV shows a number of turns that might have been taken and roles I might have aspired to – rock and roll star (or victim!), tour guide, head teacher, IT specialist, redundant City banker. I enjoy being seen as an expert in a field and probably would have been very happy as a musician – if only I'd had the dedication – and the talent!
What do you feel are the major business issues which affect Leeds and the country in general?
Unfortunately, I think the philosophy of "maximising shareholder value" was a driver that led to many of the current problems we face. Whilst I believe that a free market is the most efficient way of sorting out healthy businesses from unhealthy ones, I think there is a role for more checks and balances than those that failed to control banks, hedge funds and the borrowers and investors over the recent past. The lack of effective regulation combined with the need to meet the unlimited appetite of the shareholder led business managers into a spiral of risk-taking that, with hindsight, was unsustainable.
Meanwhile, the financial services industry is currently at a low ebb due to the lack of trust that has been engendered by the consequences of the credit crunch. However, that creates opportunity for those who can re-establish trust and show that they are genuinely customer-driven – it may be new players or new incarnations of existing ones. A great example would be First Direct here in Leeds that set a new standard for customer service. A similar renaissance is needed in financial advice and in business banking. The current recession will encourage some serious strategic thinking.
If you had the power to tackle the issues listed above, how would you go about it?
I think that there needs to be a "buffer" between management and shareholders in larger businesses – particularly financial businesses – to ensure that the longer-term strategic aims are not subsumed by the short-term demands of the share price – or of the bonus structures for the executives! This concept exists in places such as Germany where they have "supervisory boards" that are designed to do this – it's similar to the concept of non-executive directors but with teeth. Clearly there also needs to be a complete rethink on regulation. Not more, but better regulation – and somehow it needs to attract the best people.
Looking at the financial services sector in Leeds, what do you feel are the challenges it faces currently and how will you be addressing them?
Leeds is not a mirror of London – the areas of finance that led us into the crisis, such as US sub-prime lending, exotic derivatives and synthetic structures, were not "Made in Leeds". Consequently, the sharp edge of job losses being felt in the investment banks is not being felt here.
However, we do have a sophisticated, diverse financial and professional services sector which can justifiably claim to be the leading UK centre outside of London. This diversity is the key, and related to it is the flexibility of the workforce and the companies themselves. Businesses will need to adapt to the changing environment – mortgage new business processors may, for a time, need to redeploy into arrears management. Mergers and acquisitions lawyers may need to brush off restructuring and insolvency expertise.
Meanwhile, other areas can build on strengths – in difficult times, more and more businesses and people need high-quality financial and professional advice and this increases demand for the advisory capability as well as wealth management and the well-respected Independent Financial Advisory (IFA) firms.
Who in the world most impresses you a) in business and b) in life generally?
When interviewing recently, I was asking the same question and I had to ban the interviewees from nominating Richard Branson as "too easy". Given that the scope is the world, I would probably name the economist Muhammad Yunus for his astonishing achievements in establishing Grameen Bank in Bangladesh – driving to reduce poverty through micro-lending and leading to him winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Whilst there has been some recent criticism, I believe his thinking and his actions were truly transformational. Yunus would probably qualify for my "life generally" nomination too but outside of business I'd have to go for the man of the moment, Barack Obama. If the job of the president is anything like that portrayed in The West Wing, then I have nothing but admiration for someone who needs to be the ultimate multi-tasker.
Away from the office, where are we most likely to find you?
Working as an unpaid taxi driver for my two daughters or looking for my golf ball in the deep, deep rough.
You're hosting a dinner party and can invite one extra person from history – either living or dead. Who would you invite and why?
I would like to have met John Lennon – he had a wicked sense of humour, held a range of interesting social and political views and had an almost unique perspective on the events of the Sixties and Seventies. Plus he might have taught me a couple of new guitar chords!
MY CV
Howard Kew
Born: Leeds.
Live: Horsforth.
Education: Alwoodley County Primary, Leeds; Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham, Buckinghamshire; University of Leeds, reading maths, followed by Postgraduate Certificate in Education.
Career history: Teaching at Wetherby High School; tour guide, for US citizens in UK and Ireland; trainee programmer, Yorkshire Building Society; treasury professional, Leeds Building Society; treasurer, FD of Personal Finance subsidiary, Director of Capital Management, Norwich Union/Aviva.
Marital status: Married to Anne; daughters Grace, 17, and Freya, 15.l Interests: Junior hockey coaching, guitar, high handicap golf.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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