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Get to know the 50 Most Influential: Alexander Hoare of C Hoare & Co

News Team, 25/03/2021

The PAM 50 Most Influential is an annual list of those at the forefront of shaping private client wealth management in the UK and Crown Dependencies.

Today we hear from Alexander Hoare, partner at C Hoare & Co, as we continue our series getting to know the 2021 '50 Most' constituents.

During 2020, the innovative impact investing vehicle (Snowball) which Mr Hoare helped to set up opened to external investors, attracting much press attention.

C Hoare & Co also added to its Cambridge team – the office marks the first time the bank has had a presence outside London in its 348-year history.

Prior to joining his family bank, Mr Hoare worked as a marketing consultant for PA Consulting Group up until 1987.

He served as chief executive of the bank from 2001 to 2009.

What team or personal achievement over the past year are you most proud of?

I am proud of how the bank looked after our staff, and how the staff looked after our customers, who in turn remained loyal to the bank.

Having spent 30 years trying to make the bank more digital, I was pleased by its ability to pivot last March. It felt like an endorsement of my long-held mantras: “Small is Beautiful”, and “Keep it Simple Stupid”


What do you find most rewarding about your role?

My role feeds into the bank’s purpose ‘to be good bankers and good citizens’. I enjoy helping our customers achieve their aims, and on the back of being good bankers we are privileged to practise lots of catalytic philanthropy and social investment.


What most excites or interests you about the wealth management industry right now?

Five years ago we surprised many observers by selling our wealth management business. In the light of how little interest margin there is around in banking at the moment, some still query the wisdom of this. But the benefits of concentrating all our resources on our core business have been plain to see, and it is very healthy to have no conflicts with other advisers to wealthy customers.


Who do you look up to for inspiration or mentorship?

I am short of stature and look up to most people. I have found wisdom in slums, intellectual honesty in disruptive ideas, and ambition to move the needle in social enterprises. These things and more come together in one of my heroes: Mohammed Yunus – who is about my size!


If you couldn’t work in private banking, what other career appeals?

My next career started 10 years ago in social impact investment. I now chair Snowball which is an investment fund targeting all UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), and a decent risk-adjusted financial return as well.


What was your student job?

I was a waiter in hotels in France and Switzerland, hungry for tips. This was priceless training in reading and delivering on unspoken desires. All waiters will do the basics, but it’s the ones who solve deeper needs that get the best tips.

In the same way, every bank has a menu of more or less  identical services – what matters is how you configure and deliver them.


What’s a valued hobby or interest outside work and how did you get into it?

I am chairman of Intermission Youth which takes very deprived kids and has them staging Shakespeare interpretations. It has managed to thrive in its first year in its new form, even in lockdown.


When's the last time you failed spectacularly at something?

I once asked someone who accosted me in the auditorium of the Royal Geographic Society to remind me who he was. He replied that I had given him lunch in the bank the previous day. I am not good at recognising faces.