Time, good fortune and determination have all played a part in the finance leader's success.
The chief executive of one of Scotland’s most successful finance companies credits an aversion to debt and a focus on developing in Asia with ensuring a strong performance, despite the turmoil in the global markets.
Martin Gilbert, who was named Scotland’s chief executive of the year in April, founded Aberdeen Asset Management in 1983. The business now oversees over £175 billion of investments, and has 30 offices around the world, but he says bitter experience in a previous crisis is a crucial background to the current robust position.
“Our bad period was definitely the split cap crisis,” he says, referring to events in 2002, in which clients lost their investments in split capital investment trusts, the firm lost a fortune, and Mr Gilbert was called before the Treasury Select Committee.
“It’s frightening that our market capitalisation went from a billion to less than 50 million,” he says. “I vowed that we would never get ourselves in that position again. “Of course it’s very difficult to actually predict what’s going to happen. But it certainly saved us from the crisis that we have now, because we vowed that we would repay all our bank debt, and we’re sitting here now with 100 million cash compared to the 200 million net debt that we had in 2002.”
Mr Gilbert’s recognition as one of the country’s leading businessmen acknowledged his personal leadership skills and his company’s record revenues and profits. While much of the recent success is a reflection of effort and acumen, he believes an accident of birth was also a factor.
“One of my personal big breaks was having been born in Asia and realising how much growth would come from Asia,” he said. “Being the first into Asia or one of the first into Asia’s given us a huge advantage. It’s been a fantastic success story for the business.”
Though born in Malaysia, Mr Gilbert was brought up in Scotland and remains firmly rooted here, both as home and Aberdeen Asset Management’s base: “I love Aberdeen, it’s great place to live and great place to base a business,” he says.
“There is a great pool of talent in the UK – we draw from all the top universities, including the Scottish ones. The education system here in the UK allows us to employ top graduates who have gone on to be some of our top fund managers, so it has been a great benefit being based here.”
Operating on a global stage does not prevent Mr Gilbert from engaging in issues close to home, and he is supportive of the Government’s efforts to steer Scotland through the current financial crisis, though he would like to see them given greater powers to do this.
“I think they are doing all the right things,” he says. “I, like a lot of other people, would like to see them having more control over corporation tax. “I’d like to see us becoming a less dependent culture in Scotland and try and rebuild this tremendous entrepreneurial spirit. I think they’re doing all the right things to do that, so if we could see some more tax raising powers, I think that would be a great plus to the Scottish economy.”
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