A City of golden opportunity, not silver spoons

This month marks the 30th anniversary of my first day working in the City of London, and it continues to not only be a privilege to work here, but a great joy as well.

The City has given me an enormous amount - friends, professional purpose, a community and an extremely fulfilling career, enabling me to look after my family and clients as well as indulge in my fascination with the markets. It's a lifestyle that I continue to be enthusiastic about each day.

However, while I work hard and do my level best to be actively involved in lots of ways, I am also acutely aware of the path that got me here, only part of which is of my own making.

Inspired by the City

My family heritage has been intertwined with the City for generations, thanks to our roots in East London. My great grandfather - Percy Augustus Cockman - was a Freeman of the City of London, and his company, Cockman Brothers, was a rather humble fat, bone, horn and tallow chandlers in Stratford’s Marshgate Lane, now on the site of the Olympic Park.

My two grandfathers left school at 14 and 16 respectively, and my parents left school at the ages of 16 and 17. I remember going to stay with my grandparents in Wanstead, East London, in their later years, and coming to the City to see glittering spectacle of the Lord Mayor's Show - those stories of Dick Whittington were very much alive in the narrative I grew up around.

Market fascination

I was the first member of my family to go to university and get a degree, but my fascination with the markets began when I was 17 and my Great Aunt gave me a scrip dividend share certificate for about ￡20 and asked me to look after it.

I began looking up share prices in the Financial Times in the school library and became thoroughly engrossed. At university in the 1980s I was able to use my student allowance to buy privatisation share issues at the beginning of term and then sell them at end of term to fund my plans for the holidays. I was very much aware that's what I wanted to do for a living.

When I graduated in 1989, I was a beneficiary of the first Lord Mayor's 800th Anniversary Awards Trust, which happened to be founded that year. I applied for and received a grant to do a charity project in Bolivia, helping at a school and an orphanage, which was an eye-opening and enriching experience in a part of the world that I've continued to hold dear.

A place of opportunity

I mention all of this because I am aware of both the intergenerational and personal journeys that have led to my involvement in the City. Mine is a privileged story, but it's not one of multigenerational silver spoons, even though I'm sure it can look that way.

I have said before that the City is a place of opportunity. That now almost allegorical story of Dick Whittington remains something that we should aspire to as a community - preserving the City's long tradition of being a place where people can come from all walks of life to come and make their fortune.

It's arguable that the increased requirement for qualifications that proliferated in the 1990s, narrowed the entrance somewhat, but diversity and inclusion agendas are seeking to address that. Ultimately, we want to ensure the City remains a place where the front door is as wide as possible for anyone with genuine talent, aptitude and commitment, because that way everybody benefits.

The City has given me the life I always wanted. It was there for me to grasp just as long as I worked hard and showed commitment and capability. I hope we can continue to make sure that opportunity is there for anyone who seeks it out now and going forwards as well.