Square Mile and Me: Stuart Bedford on dealmakers, desert challenges and Villa Park
Each week we ask the great and good of London’s finance world to take a trip down memory lane. This week, it’s Stuart Bedford, Head of Law at KPMG
What was your first job? It was running a stock room at a wallpaper warehouse
What was your first job in financial services? This was when I started out as a trainee at Linklaters and the rest, as they say, is history.
When did you first know you were in the right job? At the point when (a) I stopped having to go the printers to review the prospectus (although the golf machine was always a bonus) or (b) I could really start to think strategically about my role and realised the breadth of opportunities I would have during the course of my career
Who is the business figure you most admire? No single person but great admiration for those people who, in a deal-setting, remain unfailingly even-handed and polite no matter how tired and stressed they are or important the issue being discussed
What’s one thing you love about Canada… That is an easy one for me. It would have to be The West End and everything it has to offer.
… and one thing you would change about the City? Never having had an office there would be the one thing that I would change.
What’s been your proudest achievement? Finishing the Saharan Challenge last Autumn – first time in the desert and brilliant experience. In work terms, completing the Ninety One demerger on the eve of lockdown. Two great clients, complex deal, crazy market conditions, huge team effort and the end of a 20 personal year journey that stated with the Investec float.
What’s your most memorable moment? The opening line of my first job interview in the City was “From your CV, I thought you’d be taller” – where do you go with that!
We’re going for lunch and you’re picking – where are we going? Sparrow on Berkeley St – great food, relaxed downstairs bar and really good atmosphere in the restaurant
And do you have a favourite post-work watering hole? 67 Pall Mall is the perfect place to head after a long day of hard work.
Are you optimistic for the rest of 2023? I am – absent of another major economic or geopolitical shock I think we have started to see a better understanding of pricing and the deal pipeline will start to open again
Give us one bold prediction for the City this year? We’ll start to see the main board IPO market return to life in H2 (although I am more optimistic about H1 2024)
Where’s home during the week? Richmond
And where would we find you on a Saturday afternoon? Villa Park, the home of Aston Villa Football Club.
You’ve a well-deserved two weeks off – where are you going, and who with? Late summer in Tuscany – family bound to come as boys will never pass up a free holiday