Making money and doing the right thing. Tips for students from a leading financial expert

TV financial expert and University of Southampton alumnus Justin Urquhart Stewart enthralled students at a Southampton Business School guest lecture on 20 February.

Making Money in a Mad World covered how turbulence following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and the election of President Trump has affected the global economy. Justin also encouraged young people in the audience to behave ethically in their careers and take personal responsibility for their finances from an early age to secure their future.

In 2001, Justin founded Seven Investment Management (7IM), which now looks after more than £7billion of founders’ and clients’ money. He graduated from Southampton in 1977, spent a short time as a barrister, then changed career to go into financial services.

Justin is keen to support today’s students turn their academic work into practice. He sponsors an annual competition for second year undergraduates with a prize of a bursary for their final year of study and a day at 7IM. A passionate advocate of ethical business practice, he advises: “Be creative and constructive but above all, do the right thing. There is a way to do business and make a positive difference to people’s lives. I am happy I can sleep at night knowing I’m doing the right thing and hopefully making people a little bit wealthier and more secure.”

7IM has many links with Southampton Business School. Analysts work with the Centre for Risk Research on matching clients’ risk profiles to individual funds and the development of a cloud-based risk management framework, among other projects.