His dad was a bank manager and supported John to take the bank entrance exam and he started there aged 16. Alongside his work he studied at night school and after 4 years he completed his training. Around 40% of his night school class secured jobs overseas, including in Canada, South Africa and Hong Kong. John had three offers and decided to try to go to Kolkata where his grandparents had lived for 40 years. He had a further 6 months training with the Bank in London ahead of his departure for Kolkata where he spent 3 years working with the bank. At the time he was the youngest captain of the Calcutta Football Club where he had lots of fun.
After 3 years in Kolkata, he spent a year each in Sri Lanka and Nigeria. He was headhunted to move to Canada when 30 trainees were recruited for a new international division. He was around 27 when he started with the Bank of Montreal where he had the opportunity to work with experienced bankers and a fantastic manager who pushed the team to learn and grow. He took several trips for the bank which were not straightforward as there were few flights available. He would travel to Japan then Australia then return via London. In 1973 he secured a promotion to move to Hong Kong to run the Bank’s office there.
His next move was to California when his former boss asked him to come and join him there. John didn’t settle well in Los Angeles as he felt there was no ‘heart’ to the city so when the opportunity came to move back to Hong Kong he took it and settled there for 4 years. His children were born in the city. After 4 years he was given the opportunity to move to New York which seemed interesting and the role there was to run a new subsidiary which he saw as a great chance to take a step up. John says this was a bit like the last role he had in Hong Kong but with a lot more money involved. This promotion put him at the same level (Senior VP) as his hiring manager.
In 1979 he received a call from the Bank of Scotland who wanted help to set up an international division. At the time his children were aged 3 and 6 and he felt it would be a good move to give his children a taste of home whilst progressing his career. His Aunt was in management in the Junior School at Mary Erskine and his children would be able to attend the school.
A move to Oman to work in a small bank followed. John was there for seven years, during which time he trained up a successor who subsequently went on to become the Chair of the Stock Exchange in Oman. John took inspiration from his manager from the Bank of Montreal and ensured he supported and encouraged those working under him to develop and grow.
In 1993 he was approached by a bank in Belfast and spent five years there. The jobs were eventually relocated to Glasgow and John took that as a sign to move on. His next step was Kuwait where he worked with the Gulf Banks for 15 months.
In 1998 he decided to follow Scotland on their rugby tour and took his son along with him to Australia. There he was invited to dinner by an old friend who was a banker in Australia. At dinner, he received a job offer to head up the merger between Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks in the wake of Fred Goodwin. John spent three years working there before he decided to retire from full time work.
John admits he is not a golfer and said there is a limit to how much rugby can be consumed passively, so he decided to take on a variety of Non-Executive Directorships around the world including in Oman, Bermuda, Northern Ireland, Dubai and London.
Covid gave him pause and he started to withdraw from some of the NEDs that he had undertaken, retaining just four roles which he is now winding down. He was very pleased to receive an Honorary Doctorate two years ago from Heriot Watt University – “not bad for a school drop out” he says! And he has spent some time teaching at Glasgow and Heriot Watt Universities in Change Management, something he has specialised on during his career.
One other passion for John is supporting a charity that works in Kolkata in India, supporting the most vulnerable children from the streets and slums through its homes, school, sports and medical programme. His first involvement with these charitable aims came before Future Hope was officially founded in 1987. He knew the founder, Tim Grandage, who was the Bank Manager of a HSBC branch in Kolkata and who had become involved in helping some of the children living on the streets near the branch which was located near to Howrah train station. John was invited to a dinner to which many of the Bank Managers in the area had been invited with the aim of raising enough funds to start a charity and offer some more concrete assistance to the children in the area. That night over £200,000 was raised and Tim was able to leave his job at HSBC and found the charity.
Through John, there have been links with SMC over the years, with rugby kit being donated as well as the children raising funds for the charity through a variety of initiatives. John feels a deep emotional attachment to the charity and is in awe of what has been achieved. The level of poverty and deprivation in Kolkata 30-40 years ago was incredible and the area still remains largely behind the rest of India in terms of development. John feels it has been defunded and has been less affected by Modi’s policies.
