THOUGHT

16 BIG INTERVIEW
BIG INTERVIEW
17
Part of the spectacular Georgian manor house at Hencote, home to Andy Stevens and wife Dora
Wellness treatments take place indoors...
t You can almost feel the pride Andy has
in Hencote as he describes in detail the
terrain, the grape varietals and the plans he
has to bring the very best English sparkling
wine to the market.
He has put his heart and soul into
his beloved estate, as well as a financial
investment which to describe as significant
is euphemistic in the extreme.
The business acumen, and deep
pockets, which Andy acquired, came
as a result of an unconventional and
cosmopolitan professional path which
led him to many far flung regions and
culminated with him becoming the boss of
one of the Middle East’s largest banks.
Despite not having done a day’s work
in his life in the UK – at least until 2014 –
Andy Stevens is surely towards the top of
the premier league of Shropshire financial
heavyweights.
Andy’s story started in 1959 when he
was born in Hong Kong to parents who
worked for its government, and the family
continued to live there for the next 25 years.
“I was brought up as a typical colonial
child,” recalls Andy.
“My early prep schooling was in Hong
Kong up to the age of seven and then I was
sent to boarding school in my father’s home
town of Loughborough, where I spent the
next 10 years.
“By the age of 12 I had set my sights on
entering the world of finance. I was one of
the first kids to do an O level in Economics,
and I completed a degree in banking and
finance at Birmingham University.
Businessman Andy Stevens made
his name in The Gulf
“My ambition at that time was to
join HSBC. However, I ended up joining
Standard Chartered which at that time was
a bigger bank than HSBC, believe it or not.
When I left university in 1980 Standard
Chartered sent me to Dublin for six months
of training and then on to Hong Kong.
“I spent two years in Hong Kong and
during long leave was told I was being sent
to the Falklands subject to a major review
by the Thatcher government conducted by
Lord Barber.
“To cut a long story short, I never made
it to the Falklands but, in 1983, was sent
instead to Bahrain which at the time was the
major financial centre of the Middle East.”
This was Andy’s first foray into life in the
Middle East, and he spent five very happy
years there with Standard Chartered. The
bank then decided to send him to Africa
which is when the relationship started to
sour.
He describes his role as “a generalist”,
relied upon to go in and manage the bank’s
operations.
“In Uganda I was director of
administration, which meant I did everything
other than the lending,” he says.
“This was a typical colonial pattern
deployed by the bank whereby the likes of
myself were expected to hold the fort; this
was clearly a fast-dying model.”
Andy became so disillusioned with life
with Standard Chartered that in 1990 he
left the bank entirely, and joined a relatively
small bank on Qatar, the Commercial Bank.
He continues: “Qatar at that time hadn’t
discovered its wealth, and was a very
inward looking, conservative nation.
“The Commercial Bank was the sixth
largest local bank and it didn’t take long to
come to the realisation that I might have
taken quite a risk!
“But I resolved to make something out
of my decision, and a couple of geopolitical
events came to my assistance.
“Soon after I joined the bank, the first
Gulf War in 1990/91 resulted in every
economy in the region trying to stimulate
change. Then, in 1995, there was a
bloodless coup in Qatar. As is often the way
in that part of the world the heir apparent
overthrew his father and he proceeded to
usher in massive, unprecedented change.
“Qatar had been sitting on known
gas reserves for 40 years, and the new
emir brought about monetising those
underground assets.
“He instigated the massive
industrialisation in Qatar which became the
second largest exporting gas producing
nation in the world.
“What had been a very small economy
worth about 6 billion dollars became, within
the space of about 15 years, one of the
most modern, dynamic economies in the
world. The value of the economy escalated
to 200 billion dollars.
“And in this extraordinary period of
change I was lucky enough to be there and
the bank rode that wave.”
Andy’s role with the bank evolved as
time went on. In the early years he was
assistant general manager looking after the
retail bank but in 1998 he took the bank
overseas into Egypt where it bought the
franchise for Diner’s Club.
That gave the bank a glimpse of the
future and what could be achieved – and it
also illustrated Andy’s capabilities.
He was promoted to general manager in
2001 with the clear brief to “wake the bank
up”.
...and outside too. Hencote is gaining a fantastic reputation as a five-star wellness retreat
It is probably easiest to look at
statistics when judging Andy’s time as
general manager and then group CEO.
When he took it on, the bank was the sixth
largest in Qatar with a balance of about
1 billion dollars on a capital base of 600
million dollars – “we were very small and
insignificant,” says Andy.
By the time he stepped down at the
end of 2013 the balance was up to 35
billion dollars. Commercial Bank sat second
behind the Qatari National Bank, was highly
rated by all the credit ratings agencies,
and had taken majority stakes in banks in
Oman, UAE and Turkey.
“We achieved stellar results,” says Andy.
“We delivered a return on equity of 25 per
cent which were unheard of, and dividend
yields which were unsurpassed in the
market.”
In 2013, largely as a result of a change
in power in Qatar and being asked to take
on an advisory role which he felt unsuited
to, Andy stepped down and thoughts turned
back to the UK and, specifically, Shropshire.
Andy recounts his story in his Hencote
office, as immaculate and ordered as the
vineyard outside.
He looks content, as well he might.
Married for 27 years to Dora and with four
children who are now living independently,
family life is good.
It also transpires that not only was
he very, very successful, but Andy also
learnt the importance of health and
wellbeing through the stresses and strains
of his career. This is why Hencote is fast
becoming a destination as a five star
wellness retreat – its owner understands the
value of health.
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