Peter Long, one of the founders of Capital International, is retiring after more than a quarter of a century with the group.

He has decided that now is the time to step down from the Capital International Board, having served the group since its beginnings in 1996.

Peter is invariably described by those who have worked with him as a true gentleman and a pleasure to be with; a father to everyone, a mentor, and an inspiration.

His achievements with Capital would be quite enough to look back on with satisfaction but Peter is being completely accurate when he tells you that this has actually been his ‘second career’. Before he came to the island, he had already had a distinguished CV, working in financial services in London and the Far East.

Peter was born in June 1939, during the final weeks of a pre-war, peaceful Britain. He was christened on the day the Second World War began.

As with many war time children, Peter was hugely impacted by the war.

He recalls: ‘I was born in Pinner, Middlesex, on the outskirts of West London, and these were very tough times. There was little time to become accustomed and resilient to the darkness that resulted from the wartime blackouts.’

But these tough times also helped him to develop the skills and mindset to cope with the ups and downs of the financial markets as he began his ‘first career’ in the City of London, in 1959.

‘I had a thirst for knowledge and an eagerness to learn,’ he says.

His career was interrupted by two years of compulsory National Service, in October 1959. Originally drafted into the Royal Hampshire Regiment, following Officer Cadet Training at Mons in Aldershot, Peter was Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment, now a part of the 1st Rifles.

He thrived in this regimental environment and so, at the end of his compulsory two years of service, he continued to serve in the Territorial Army with the 4th/6th Battalion the Royal Berkshire Regiment in Reading, where he met his wife, Heather. He reached the rank of Captain before finally retiring from service in 1973.

His City career was progressing alongside this. He recalls: ‘Balancing a lengthy commute to the City each day, with my personal and Territorial Army life meant there were never sufficient hours in the day, but life was relaxed and fun.’

In 1970 Peter was invited to join the partnership of Laurence, Prust & Co. He became head of their Overseas Department and was responsible for opening the partnership’s offices in Singapore and Malaysia (where he moved with his family in 1974) as well as a representative office in Hong Kong. For well over a decade Laurence, Prust & Co was recognised as a specialist research house covering Southeast Asia. In 1973 Peter became one of the founding shareholders of the Framlington Unit Trust Group.

In the mid 1980’s, the impact of Big Bang in the City of London saw his partnership split up, largely due to the success of the Framlington Group.

He recalls: ‘Major changes were afoot throughout the City. I was invited to join James Capel & Co, by then owned by HSBC Bank, as a senior executive and their representative for Southeast Asia. It was ironic that my son, Anthony, was already working at James Capel.’

There followed many successful years of business travel throughout Southeast Asia, after which Peter retired following an unfortunate lung collapse in 1989.

He was not, however, destined to be retired for long. When Anthony was looking for a change of lifestyle which did not involve a lengthy daily commute, they started looking at the idea of setting up a business together.

Peter says: ‘Anthony had always wanted to start a broking company and we looked in the UK for quite a long while, but nothing was quite what we were looking for.’

Peter had known the late Ronnie Buchanan who was at the time running a financial services company from Lorne House in Castletown. Peter had visited to do a presentation and had liked what he saw, so they started to consider the Isle of Man as a possible location.

Peter says ‘We did about six months of research; there was a very substantial banking network and also a huge life assurance business. So, there was a very big financial hub here.’

This was important because their vision was to offer an innovative alternative for those financial institutions who wished to transact business directly into overseas markets, rather than passing their business through agents in London or elsewhere.

Initially, however, they were not welcomed with open arms by the then FSC.

Peter says ‘I think the Commission was concerned that we didn’t have massive capital resources and the risk to the island of a new start up going under was too great, so they wanted to discourage us. But they failed because we came back keener than ever!’

Even when their licence was granted it must still have been a hugely brave decision to go ahead, as not only Peter and Heather but also Anthony and his wife, Helen; Peter’s younger son, David, and another family member, Robert Floate, and Helen’s mother, Thelma, all left their lives in the UK and came to live on the island to fulfil their shared vision.

When Capital International first opened its doors in 1996, in a small office in The Parade in Castletown, there were just the six of them working there and no existing clients, just a steely determination to develop and grow their new business.

Peter was able to draw on his City connections to allow them to fulfil one of the conditions of their licence, which was to ensure that the risk of trading for institutions in overseas markets was covered. Capital linked up with Pershing securities in London where two of Peter’s former partners were now directors, and an agreement was put together whereby Pershing accepted all the legal and trade settlement risks of Capital’s business.

Peter says: ‘We are still operating that same agreement to this day, and this is what enabled Capital International to provide a highly competitive and personalised service, while we developed more dynamic and flexible client solutions.’

They had also made one or two key recruitments in Kirsten Gorry and Mark Wilkinson.

Peter says: ‘Kirsten had worked for Sun Life and she really taught us all about life companies and how they worked. We couldn’t make enough profit with just Stock Exchange transactions, we needed to build up some unit trust dealing. However, the life companies preferred to deal directly with unit trust managers. It took the expertise of Kirsten to enable us to break through there.

‘That got us into managing the administration and developing the unit trust side and this was fantastic. From that point on we were growing really quite rapidly.’

In 2000 they moved to a larger building in Castletown, Mill Court. But as the company continued to grow, eventually a move to Douglas became inevitable: ‘We moved into Capital House in 2010 and the business just took off: it was quite amazing. We now have over 150 people employed in Douglas,’ says Peter.

There are also now two offices in South Africa, in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and a small ‘home’ office in Durban.

And it gives Peter obvious pleasure to be able to report that, apart from Thelma who now lives in the UK: ‘Everyone’s still working at Capital - that’s what’s so amazing.’

His younger son, David left to work in London with Mercury Asset Management for five years. Then, to Peter’s great delight, he phoned him one day and said: ‘Dad, do you have any room for me at Capital?’ The rest is history!’

The next generation is also coming through: after completing a Masters in Computer Science, Anthony’s son, Alex, is now working for Capital, making his way in their IT department.

Family has been integral to the success of Capital but they have always been keen to recruit people with the right expertise to help them grow the business.

Peter says: ‘I think what has really amazed me is the quality of people we’ve been able to attract and many of them have been with us for years and years, including Kirsten. We want to employ those who can look after our clients better than we can, while we continue developing the business.’

Taking on former Barclays chief, Greg Ellison led to another innovative move when he put together a case to build a digital bank.

Peter says: ‘The idea of putting a bank together that could digitally offer services all around the world, but in particular to Jersey and Guernsey and the offshore islands, was very attractive so we went for it. We opened about a year and a half ago, having brought in some really experienced people who had all the essential banking skills, plus some really senior people, at the top of their tree.

‘With this level of expertise there’s no limit to the growth we can bring into the island.

‘Fifty per cent of our new investment business is now coming from South Africa and I’m certain we can go on attracting overseas business into the island.’

Outside of the business, Peter has been a long-time supporter of Macmillan Cancer Support. In 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Life Membership for his services to the Charity. He has also served for over a decade as a director of the Isle of Man International Business School and as a Governor of UCM.

An active beekeeper and gardener, Peter and his wife Heather live in Port St Mary. They will celebrate their 59th wedding anniversary in May and hope they will now have time to travel more as he begins his ‘second retirement’. He also enjoys spending many hours researching current affairs and how any changes might impact their businesses.

The three values he has made part of the culture at Capital really sum up his whole attitude towards business and why he is so respected.

He says: ‘Integrity and excellence are absolutely essential. If you go around misleading people, it soon catches up with you. These attributes are embedded into everything we do; and a third value, innovation, is also essential because you must keep ahead of what is going on in the world of business.