3O WOMEN MAKING THEIR MARK IN BUSINESS

HE MAY hold the title of the Lord Mayor of the City of London but the remit of the role goes far beyond the confines of the square mile.

William Russell is an ambassador for the UK’s financial and professional services industry, which employs 2.3m people nationwide.

And it is a sector that is growing rapidly in Wales.

Admiral, Wales’ only FTSE 100 company, announced profits in excess of half a billion last week, while Amplyfi is tipped to be the first unicorn business based in Wales.

On Monday Mr Russell, pictured right, was in the Welsh capital to meet with the Secretary of State for Wales, the Welsh Government Minister for International Relations, the Welsh Fintech Envoy and leading business and fintech figures that are at the heart of the city’s success.

During his visit the Lord Mayor heard first-hand from the people who have transformed and developed Cardiff’s burgeoning financial and professional services ecosystem, learning from them and sharing examples of best practice.

The meetings were also used to promote the City Corporation’s UK Partnerships strategy, which is helping to strengthen financial and professional services links across the whole of the UK.

In particular, the strategy aims to increase inward investment into its partner cities and build awareness of how London can act as a springboard for local firms to export their products and services globally.

A study by IW Capital – a Londonbased private equity firm – found that while 34% of people in Wales have started their own business or want to, 20% of people don’t know how to meet an investor.

Cardiff has been identified as a key city in the Lord Mayor’s strategy with good reason. Wales has the fastest growing digital economy outside of London, and the growth of the country’s financial and professional sector has led to a thriving fintech industry, especially in the Welsh capital.

As part of his year-long tenure the Lord Mayor will travel for around 100 days overseas to more than 20 different countries promoting the industry. The UK Partnerships

Strategy has been particularly successful in Wales.

Welsh firms Delio and Amplyfi joined previous overseas Lord Mayor delegations to take advantage of opportunities around the globe. After joining a delegation to Australia in 2018, Delio set up operations in Sydney.

In a meeting room at Deloitte, whose Cardiff offices are the second biggest in the group after London, the Lord Mayor said: “We are based in London but we are promoting fintech around the whole of the UK, and Cardiff is one of those key cities.”

He is keen to see a reverse of the brain drain as the best and the brightest have in the past left Wales for London.

“Everyone is talking to me about the talent here in Cardiff,” he says.

“I think the key thing is to keep the talent here in Cardiff rather than moving out.

“That seems to be something that has momentum, not just in Cardiff it is also Leeds, Manchester, and other cities. London has become very expensive and if you are starting up a business you are much better off starting up a business, to be frank, in Cardiff where the cost of your building and what you are paying people is going to be substainally less than if you did it in London.

“Starling Bank, for examples, has a headquarters in London but is about to employ 400 people in Cardiff because they know the talent is here and it wil cost them a lot less than finding 400 people in London and I think that is very positive and I think