We’re a friendly bunch at FOLK2FOLK and we love seeing the positive and life-changing impact finance can have.  We get to know our customers so we thought you might like to know a bit about us too. Over to you Julia…

Having grown up as an expat, starting life in the Caribbean followed by France, Belgium and Italy, it was no surprise that I left my investment banking role in the City in 2002, swapping the early commuter train in from Wandsworth for the heat of the Dubai desert in search of the next adventure!

I spent the next 17 years in Dubai, working in the Asset Management industry with Institutional Investors, and most recently as Investor Relations Officer for a listed REIT. Dubai underwent huge change in the period I was there, going from a relatively sleepy town where every UK trip involved bringing back a suitcase load of items you couldn’t buy there, to a bustling ever changing metropolis, literally offering everything under the sun – where else can you go skiing when it is 50° C outside?

However, as our children were approaching secondary school age we made the move back to Cornwall, a part of the UK we had come to love through spending summers here escaping the heat of the Middle East. After settling our family back into UK life and acquiring a busy café in Truro, Loading Bay 7, I started to keep an ear out for opportunities back in the financial sector. Imagine my surprise to find a new challenge just up the road in Launceston!

I joined Folk2Folk to develop and manage our Institutional Investor base; a key component of the firm’s growth strategy for the next three years. It is very exciting to have joined at such a pivotal point in the company’s history.

This is the first time I have taken on a new role remotely, which has been very different! Thankfully, I have been made to feel very welcome by everyone at FOLK2FOLK and have discovered a fantastic group of professionals, all with very unique backgrounds, that each bring something different to the table. It is so refreshing to see such a progressive attitude towards structuring roles to suit each individual’s personal circumstances as well as being able to meet the demands of such a fast-growing environment.

On my days off, I am usually helping my husband with various aspects of our café, and whenever possible I can be found walking with our very energetic spaniel, usually somewhere on the South West Coast path, with our two equally energetic boys!