Running a high-quality family office has become an attractive position in the investing industry, with plum positions appearing infrequently and demanding huge interest when they do.
Just last month, Paul Reynolds, chief executive of well-known family office Thamesis Limited, said he was stepping down to pursue other ventures after sixteen years in the role.
Cressida Myers has succeeded him. Myers was most recently at J.P. Morgan as head of sustainable portfolio management for the international private bank in London.
Reynolds said Myers had plenty of competition. The reason for this is down in part to the evolution of the industry — what was once considered a niche role has become attractive for younger people with a finance skillset who think of these positions as having a better work-life balance than ones at banks and asset managers.
The role of the family office leader is very appealing. It has a high level of intellectual variety, requires managing only one stakeholder, offers the ability to build something over many years, and to work closely with principals and family members over time.
Working directly for a family requires an advisor dynamic unlike any other: “Trust is earned over time. You don't get to be a trusted advisor because you're CEO, you get to be a trusted advisor because you've done the hard yards over a number of years,” said Reynolds.
A family office job has many facets, with individual layers straightforward and relatively easy to hand over — but together they are complex.
“Individual issues are not necessarily complicated, but these are things that reach into many parts of people's lives, there are a lot of moving parts,” he said.
Reynolds will continue advising Thamesis, working closely with Myers during the adjustment period.
People who hold key family office jobs simply don’t want to give them up. Reynolds estimated that only one or two positions like this one will come up in an average year in London.
The CEO of a New York based SFO agreed. “I haven’t seen that sort of role come up in years,” he said.
After reading a book, the Hundred Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, Reynolds decided the time was right for him personally. He wanted to continue learning and contributing while improving his own work-life balance.
“I love the day job, but this way I can add value to more families and also have more time for myself,” he said. “When you look at it like that, well why wouldn't I?”
He added that he is excited about the state of the industry and the caliber of those choosing to pivot into it. “I can think of a whole host of really impressive people around the world in their 40s who could go and do brilliantly in any industry, and they've gone into running family offices because they really enjoy it and think it's an interesting role,” he said.
This will inevitably lead to a professionalization of the industry as it expands and provides a home for high achievers.
“Headhunters always found me hard to pigeonhole because I covered so much ground during my time at a private bank,” he said. “But the family office role was perfect for me, because I can do everything and a lot more. Every day you are thrown new challenges and have to work out what you need to know in order to do the job. It is an incredible privilege to have a role with those attributes, so I consider myself extremely lucky— and now I think other people see it in that way too.”
