Ethics of high finance
In his day job John Reynolds advises major corporate businesses and governments on financial matters that run into enormous sums of money.
He also chairs the Ethical Investment Advisory Group that advises the Church of England’s main investing bodies on how to ethically invest over £5bn. But he prefers a simple lifestyle in a village where his family seek to practise self sufficiency as far as possible. And he likes his faith simple too.
Still youthful at the age of 42, John Reynolds copes with business pressures that would have most of us looking for the door. He is an independent investment banker but emphasises that he is not involved in derivatives and the kind of financial dealing that has created recent bad headlines. However, he points out that if investment banking did not exist someone would have to invent it in order to keep both the business world and global economies working.
Advising some of the largest companies in the world on mergers and acquisitions, providing guidance on financial restructuring and helping distressed companies survive in various parts of the world is what makes up the normal 9.00 to 5.00 work day. Only it never is just
9.00 to 5.00 and I suspect his Blackberry is rarely if ever switched off as he needs to remain accessible day and night.
Together with other partners he set up the investment bank Reynolds Partners after successfully establishing and building a European base for a major American company for many years. The partnership now spans both sides of the Atlantic, and he was working in the States when he was invited to attend an interview for the post of Chairman of the Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group. So he caught a flight back to the UK and then, after the interview, caught a flight back to finish his negotiations States side.
One unexpected aspect of the life of this high flyer is that his first degree was in theology as his original intention was to train for Anglican ministry. And this has equipped him, possibly exceptionally, to approach the world of big finance with a critical ethical eye. But while there are some businesses that the Church of England (and indeed some 13 other denominations that he now influences) would not want to invest in, Reynolds is an advocate of engagement where appropriate. “We have an opportunity to influence the way large companies do their business, and we have a duty to encourage more ethical behaviour”, he told me enthusiastically. And when it comes to bringing such influence
to bear it is often John that would be at the negotiating table.
Back home with his wife, Karen, and their four children, his ethical attitude has led to a fairly simple lifestyle. He recently planted an area of willow that will be coppiced to provide bio-fuel, and he rears sheep, pigs and chickens on his 25 acre smallholding. Living in the country is a deliberate lifestyle choice because it provides the kind of environment he wants his children to grow up in.
His main interaction with the village of 1000 is through the life of his local church where he enjoys reading the lessons and seeks to do so with expression. “There are so many good stories in this book” he told me. Like his personal life, John likes his faith simple. For this man “faith is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and I believe that personal faith is far more important that issues of denominationalism that divides Christians.”
As our interview drew to a close at 9.00pm he was heading back to work in the world of high finance, but he couldn’t resist a reference to things Jesus said about people who are rich. “Wealth doesn’t make you happy; there’s a lot of benefit in simplicity” he asserted.
Barry Osborne
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www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk
public life public faith
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