When Richard Romer-Lee formally becomes co-chief executive of Titan Asset Management in a few weeks, it will mark the latest career chapter for a man who says: “When I began my working life, I’m not sure I knew what a CEO was, never mind having a goal to become one.”
Romer-Lee did not attend university but began as an office junior at an advice firm that was set up specifically to provide financial planning services to doctors.
He subsequently created and sold two businesses, Old Broad Street Research, which became part of Morningstar, and Square Mile Consulting and Research, which has been sold to Titan and which will be part of Romer-Lee’s responsibilities at his new firm.
At the time of the sale, the latter administered £2.5bn of assets for clients.
He says he believes his progress from office junior to chief executive was based on enthusiasm and being in the right place at the right time. "When I started my career, I was doing administrative work, it was 1985 and opening the post was a big part of the job; then I was posted to the investment department.
"After a while a colleague came in, he was setting up a new division, and needed an administrator and a secretary. He looked around this big office for volunteers, no one put their hand up except for me and a colleague who was a secretary, and that was the start for me really."
Romer-Lee says that being “willing to put one's hand up” is key to career development, “but also more fun really because you never know where it may take you. I didn’t know what was involved in the role I took on, or what would happen with the start-up company I was joining. But it was fun and I learned a lot and it set me on the way to launching the businesses I did.”
Romer-Lee says interpersonal skills and a slightly old school way of operating remain the key to success, saying: “What I try to tell my teams is that in-person is better than zoom, zoom is better than the phone, the phone is better than email – well everything is better than email.
"I think in my time in this industry, one thing that has happened is that it has become a lot more professional in all areas, and the quality of advisers has gone up massively. Advice has become much more personalised since the Retail Distribution Review and that is progress.
"I think the next stage is for investment management is to become more personalised, more focused on the individual client rather than just off-the-shelf solutions, and of course the way portfolios are constructed is part of that, but so is the way we communicate with each other and with clients.
"Perhaps the new ways of working forget the benefits that come from face-to-face communication.”
