James Donald-Adkin - Chief Executive Amico Group PLC

James was born in Hampshire and educated at King Edward VI School, Camphill, Birmingham and the University of Manchester where he was awarded an Honours Degree in History.  During his gap year, and whilst at University, he worked as a volunteer on social projects in the Middle East and South America. He was Chairman of the University Debating Society in 1985/86.  

In 1988 he joined the Graduate Management Development Programme of Barclays Plc. After attachments to business areas in the City, his first appointment was managing a project which successfully re-engineered the credit process in UK business banking.

In 1995 he was made an Assistant Director of Barclays Private Bank and appointed Head of Credit Risk in the UK where for three years he led a team which built the credit product into a core component of the Bank’s business model. A lending book of £350mn contributed 10% of the Private Bank’s annual revenue by 1998.  In that year he was appointed a Private Banker at Barclays, in which role he developed strong relationships with high net worth clients in the Middle East region and delivered substantial revenue to the Bank based on AUMs of over £200mn. In 2000 he was asked to join Citi Private Bank as Vice President, EMEA and significantly developed Citi’s franchise in the Middle East region over the following three years.

In addition to his career in finance, from 1990 to 1998 he served as a councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth and after being appointed to the Chairman’s Group in 1991 was successively Conservative Chief Whip and Chairman of the Property Committee before being elected Chairman of the Conservative Group from 1994 to 1997. He is also active in the local community and has served as a member of the Management Committees of the Battersea Churches Housing Trust and the Gateway Community Centre and as a Trustee of the De Morgan Foundation.

In 2003 he co-founded Amico Group PLC with Hamish McFall and as Chief Executive for the past five years has led the management team in building a profitable Group business which has become one of the most well-regarded and sought after arrangers of credit finance for private clients in the UK.

He currently supports a number of charities in the UK and internationally and is a member of the Committee of the John Cornforth Memorial Fund raising money for an educational programme in the UK.  His main recreations are travel, classical music and opera. He is a member of the Committee of the Friends of the Philharmonia Orchestra and holds a Diploma in Opera Performance Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London.

James Donald-Adkin is a Member of the Institute of Financial Services (MIFS).