Rob is based in the firm’s London office, and he acts for a range of private and business clients, advising them across all aspects of their financial affairs.
Rob trained with a predecessor firm and became a partner of Saffery in 1987. Rob was previously the firm’s Managing Partner from 2002–10, and from 2015-18. He has also served as the firm’s Finance Partner.
Rob’s clients are mainly privately owned, corporate businesses, which operate in a wide range of sectors including property (investment and development), wholesale and retail, building and contracting, and commodities.
With his experience of the financial and management issues that the firm has had to face, and also a real enthusiasm for the partnership model, Rob has also built up a client portfolio of professional services businesses.
These include firms of lawyers, patent agents, architects and surveyors, both partnerships and incorporated, and their partners/directors. Whichever sector Rob’s clients operate in, the experience he has gained as both Finance and Managing Partner ensures that he is able to provide pragmatic and relevant advice. As well as providing accounting and taxation services to his clients, he shares his wider experiences on other matters, for example banking and insurance, enabling him to become a genuine business adviser.
Rob’s close relationship with his clients results in detailed involvement in the planning and execution of major transactions, which have included client disposals to listed companies and existing management; acquisitions of other businesses or assets; and mergers and de-mergers of professional services businesses. In a number of disposal cases he continues to advise the former owners and their families in relation to their personal wealth and financial affairs generally.
Key experience
- Advising the owners on the proposed sale of their architects practice,
- Undertaking investigative work into financial irregularities following the retirement of a finance director,
- Dealing with the tax efficient structuring of a family business and its subsequent sale to a listed company,
- Acting for a number of partners in the de-merger of their solicitors practice,
- Advising the owner on the strategy for the successful sale of a family business to its management,
- As the firm’s previous Managing Partner, developing and implementing three successive business plans.
Interests
Rob has a full family life with two teenage sons, but still finds time to play hockey for Old Merchant Taylor’s Hockey Club. In the summer he spends time indulging in his passion for cars and motorcycles, as long as the sun is shining.