City to lose leading female chief as Smith steps down
THE City of London is losing one of its few female chief executives after Sam Smith announced her intention to step down at broker Finncap.
Ms Smith will leave her position at the London-listed company at the beginning of September after 15 years in charge. She joined JM Finn, a private client-focused investment manager, in 1998 to establish its corporate advisory and brokerage division before leading a partial buyout of JM Finn Capital Markets in 2007.
That deal meant that she assumed the role of chief executive, making her the City’s first female stockbroking chief. She led the company to a public listing on London’s junior market Aim in 2018.
Ms Smith will move to an advisory role and will be replaced by John Farrugia, managing partner of Finncap Cavendish, the company’s mergers and acquisitions business. Commenting on her departure, Ms Smith said: “After 24 years building Finncap into a leading advisory business for the mid-market, it is now time for me to step back.
“We have a truly great business with some amazing people that I have loved working with and I am delighted to leave it in their very capable hands.”
Ms Smith is one of the most highprofile female leaders in the City and earlier this year told The Daily Telegraph that Brexit had provided a boost to the Square Mile. Ms Smith said the UK’S departure was going “very well” for the financial services industry, despite warnings that it would lose business and jobs to the Continent following Britain’s break with Brussels.
“To me, Brexit has not been anything other than quite positive,” she said. “We are seeing signs that actually the regulatory regime could be changed in a positive way post-brexit to really make this ecosystem fly.”
Last year, the 48-year-old launched a new unlimited holiday policy at Finncap in a bid to prevent staff burnout.