Giles Graves: ‘Stalwarts like me have no loyalties other than to the client family members’

As Family Offices grow and diversify, there is a need to hire professionals and the ability to recruit staff with the appropriate skillset is critical. One family office executive who has consistently thrived is Giles Graves.

Giles has more than 20 years’ experience working with some of the world’s most prominent family offices. Throughout his career, he has advised numerous dynasties on key issues, from the foundations of trust to the dynamics of family member relationships, from recruitment to next-generation education, from the professional management of personal asset portfolios to philanthropy, conservation and stewardship … In his words he has experienced the “War and Peace of family offices”.

Here, Giles Graves talks to CampdenFB about the importance of honesty, respect and remaining grounded…

When CampdenFB last interviewed you in 2008, you were working for the Grosvenor family. What are you doing now?
Since 2011 I have been an independent consultant, working on a mixed bag of private matters with family offices. I have visited 44 countries and worked all over the world. More recently I have been working in partnership with an entrepreneur called Gareth James. He was one of the founders of moneysupermarket.com (a 2007 unicorn IPO) and essentially a tech genius. We have a number of ideas and our first business Flockr is doing incredibly well. Eight months in, we have revenue of £30,000 a month with next to no costs and a year-end valuation of £7.7 million. We are looking at a two-year growth and exit strategy. I also love my skiing and am on the board of Telemark Slovenia, promoting the sport and helping them to organise the World Cup in March 2024.

I have visited 44 countries and worked all over the world.

What is your outlook for 2024?
Market turmoil is long overdue. Banks wouldn’t dare to admit it but there are bubbles everywhere. Residential property prices far outstretch salaries in many developed countries. Commercial property faces a crisis where we are all increasingly happy and capable working from home. The ‘global high street’ is forever battling Amazon and e-commerce. Companies like Inditex increased e-commerce by 70% to €7.8 billion in 2022… What does that mean for their shops? Look at Arcadia and Wilko for recent UK bankruptcies or Blockbuster, Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond in the US.

Financial Markets are at all-time highs. The financial media and top financial professionals are, at minimum, ambivalent to the fact that the financial markets are corrupt and manipulated. That means every penny any of us earn or spend is manipulated. Every value of every asset hangs in this balance. Every pension. The cost of every item.

In 2024, particularly bearing in mind the US election, we will see considerable market turmoil with greater unveiling than ever before of the corruption that exists in financial markets. Listen out for SEC fines to understand who is doing what, in particular this year Citadel and JP Morgan. 

We have seen unprecedented quantitative easing by governments since 2020, meanwhile share buy backs and market manipulation practices have been continuously increasing since 2008. No lessons have been learned.

How did you first start working with family offices? 
I qualified as a solicitor in 2005 and was immediately offered a job in the Grosvenor family office by the Sixth Duke of Westminster. He liked that I had top grades, but more so that I had been involved in community work, supporting local entrepreneurs and various charitable endeavours. 

He was great fun and into everything. He held a top position in the military, was founder and patron to hundreds of charities and groups, had many interesting passions - in particular, conservation of rural landscapes and history - and had a portfolio of fascinating properties, assets and businesses. It was heaven.

He has sadly passed away since but we had six fantastic years working together. The family are incredible. So kind and fun, and setting a great example as stewards of multi-generational wealth. As a result of this role, the most incredible world opened up to me.

Can you talk a little about your role and responsibilities working for Grosvenor and how the opportunity came to you?
I started in research and project coordination, essentially hitting the ground running and gradually being given access to anything and everything. I then moved into more legal and asset management work and then was finally made Family Office Executive, working closely with senior management to manage all private assets and activities. My mentor was the Duke’s long-serving Chief of Staff, Vicky Bolton, who is absolutely brilliant, kind, fun and very bright.

My greatest skill is to make things simple.

You have since gone onto advise many prominent dynasties, as well as working with hugely successful first generation entrepreneurs. What skills have you been cultivating?
I’d say my greatest skill is to make things simple. Some of the things I have been involved with have been very complicated and high value but I avoid complexity at all costs. I don’t pretend to know things and I don’t use complicated language. I am constantly learning. I have no fear talking to the brightest minds and specialists in their fields.

Secondly, but no less importantly, I have huge passion for equality across the social hierarchy. I speak the same way to my colleagues and service staff as I do to British Dukes and Qatari Royalty. In general, that’s what everyone wants. Everyone deserves respect. It’s a huge red flag if someone hangs on every word of the Principal but is then rude to the Housekeeper.

It is an important skill to be honest and avoid sycophancy. Many people make the mistake of becoming glassy-eyed and not thinking straight when entering impressive situations or talking to wealthy, confident people. Cultural differences exist between nationalities but the fundamentals of social interaction are the same worldwide. Look at all world leaders, they are men and women, mums and dads, brothers and sisters, we are all the same.

You qualified as a lawyer in 2005, how has that training come into use throughout your career?
To be completely honest with you, I have met so many brilliant and hugely successful people that do not have any kind of professional qualification so sometimes I don’t value it as much as maybe I should. I also suffer from assuming that what I know, everyone knows and what I do, everyone can do. Apparently this is quite a common fault.

The UK legal professional qualification is a good grounding with a three-year university degree followed by a post graduate diploma then two further years law firm training. It is more in-depth than an MBA. To keep the ‘lawyer’ badge, there is an obligation to always act with honour and integrity. More importantly though, I have my mother’s words ringing in my ears to always ‘play a straight bat’.

According to Campden Wealth’s European Family Office Report 2023, despite the challenging investment landscape, European FOs continued to expand in 2022. Nearly a third of respondents indicated their family offices had increased staff numbers through the recruitment of professional, non-family members. What are the key benefits of increasing family office staff from outside the family?
I would say that senior management across all industries seem to think that growing a bigger team means they are doing well. So many employed leaders proudly say they grew the team from X to XX. I am not a fan of growing teams for the sake of it. I think the best offices are where everyone is fully engaged and busy. I would say that is not commonly the case as teams grow. In short, family office recruitment is an absolute minefield.

As far as trust is concerned, I see things from the family perspective. 

The same report found that the ability to recruit staff with the appropriate skillset is critical for family offices with the pool of potential talent found to be too small. 39 percent of respondents saw this as a significant constraint on their ability to hire professional staff. Additionally, 32 percent feel that the limited talent pool is also a constraint on their ability to hire staff with appropriate interpersonal skills. What advice would you give to FOs looking to onboard talented and trustworthy staff but don’t know where to start?
The ability to simplify things is essential and rare. I have worked with English, Canadian, American, Iranian, Russian and Middle Eastern family office clients. Cultures differ in every family office I know. The pool of talent is not small at all. There is a closed mindset on what constitutes talent, who to hire and why. Time and again, I have seen senior managers afraid to hire or promote people who are better than them.

As far as trust is concerned, I see things from the family perspective. They are often advised to value people that a professional industry values. It must be understood that a professional advises the client but with their own firm’s profitability in mind. Hire that professional privately in your family office and the mentality, to some extent, remains. The best family offices grow talent from within. Many people’s professional careers fly on their professional network, who they know rather than how capable they are. Stalwarts like me have no loyalties other than to the client family members.

Watch this space for a series of articles on key issues facing family offices written exclusively for CampdenFB by Giles Graves.