Our Finlaw family …
Twenty years have passed by since we moved into our offices in Redlands Estate – so it was time for a décor revamp. We have shed the “Ocean Blue” feature-wall in our Reception and replaced it with something far more “Earthy” – good old South African bushveld grass (literally) glued to the walls in Reception and in our Meeting Room. It’s an unambiguous confirmation of our collective grounding here in our beloved country. Fear not however – we have retained our Global bias by placing a large World Map on the Reception wall depicting the vastness of our blue Oceans and the Earth’s floating
Continents. Those wonderful old Ocean-going Yacht pictures are still present, reminding us of the navigation skills required to successfully chart Global investment strategies for
our clients.
Team Talk …
In our last newsletter we featured Stacey – now it is time for a “Coffee with Nolan” session curated by Marcel.
Marcel: Let’s kick off with a brief chat about where you were born, schooled etc?
Nolan: Like Stacey, I too was born in Pietermaritzburg, moved to Hilton at the tender age of two, went on to attend Hilton Pre-Primary, then Laddsworth Primary, followed by Merchiston Preparatory before heading off to Kearsney College for my high school education where I matriculated in 1997.
Marcel: So, what did you do after Kearsney?
Nolan: I had to wait a while to be old enough to get a motor car driver’s license and then headed off to the United Kingdom for a gap year. I worked in a 16th Century restaurant called The Highwayman Inn nestled in the Chiltern hills just outside Reading. That’s where I honed my culinary skills – and broadened my horizons!
Marcel: When you returned from the UK did you take up any form of tertiary education here in RSA?
Nolan: I got back part way through the year [1999] so started off with some Varsity College short Certificate courses on Computers [probably a push from my dad who at the time headed up Venn’s Information Technology drive] – but I found it interesting all the same. As a result, in the years that followed, I started my primary Bachelors Degree that included Business Information Systems and Quantitative Stats [both right up my alley] with Psychology and Social Sciences to balance things up. It wasn’t long before the “wander lust” [inherited from my Irish heritage no doubt] set in once more – so I also enrolled for an Open Ocean Skippers course in Durban which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Marcel: Did you get to use those yachting skills, or had you just done the courses for interests’ sake?
Nolan: Indeed, I did. In June 2006, I was employed along with three other young South Africans, to sail across the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Town to the British Virgin Islands in a brand new ocean going 43 foot catamaran on its maiden voyage for delivery to a company called “The Moorings” in Tortola. A most exciting 28 day journey which taught me a great deal about close quarter living and the teamwork required to successfully endure everything the ocean and weather could throw at us. We experienced massive storms and extreme seas contrasted with total calm and mirrored seas in the doldrums. 
That started a five-year stint working on large motor yachts based out of Fort Lauderdale in Florida, USA. I have had the pleasure of sailing in four of the major oceans, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans. Although the majority of my time was spent in the Caribbean and Bahamas, I was fortunate enough to have sailed as far North as Canada on the East coast, as far South as the Southernmost tip of Argentina, then along the Chilean Coast up to the Galapagos Islands, through the Panama Canal and back to the USA, once more across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean resting in the Greek islands. I’ve had the privilege of working for some extremely wealthy people who owned these Super Yachts.
Marcel: Wow – great Global experience with such extensive travels – what brought you back home?
Nolan: My last 18-month long assignment was on a motor yacht belonging to a World famous film Director who was an absolute gentleman and a pleasure to work for. Taking care of guests and their families was one of the best responsibilities of the job. I guess that triggered a strong desire to return home to my own family and settle down. I got back in August 2011 after 5 years and 2 months abroad. Soon after sparked a partnership with the wonderful Kate who was to become my wife and the mother of our three magical children: Evelyn, Florence & Sean . “Mission Accomplished” – my path of being a family man had begun.
Marcel: How did your journey to joining Finlaw develop?
Nolan: Initially I worked with my sister Kerry in her Video Production Company doing computerised editing for her as well as some filming assignments as far afield as New Zealand. At the same time, I added to my studies at university completing my degree and furthering with a Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning. I got married in April 2014 and joined Finlaw in January 2015. My responsibilities at Finlaw dovetail with my skill set in database design, programming and IT systems management. I do extensive analytical work building algorithms to mine for Fund Management companies that perform consistently over time, and which can form part of our client’s tailored investment strategies aligned to their specific needs.
In closing I must say that I thoroughly enjoy the role I play within our Finlaw team as we build and monitor investment plans for our clients. In the nine years I have so far served at Finlaw we, along with our clients, have faced many significant global and local challenges which have shaken the investors’ world. A reminder that … 2018 was a tough year of largely negative performances driven by President Trump’s trade war with China; Covid early in 2020 provided a brief panicky plumet in share prices, followed by meteoric growth in certain narrow sectors of the market; Putin’s attack on Ukraine in 2022 caused a long 9 month decline in share prices and Worldwide repercussions on inflation and interest rates; and then the Israel/Hamas/Gaza war since October 2023 with the Middle East even more unsettled than usual.
It may seem that “there is never a dull moment” in our World and yet strategic investing has held up particularly well within the Fund Management companies we include in our client portfolios. Despite all the doom & gloom locally and abroad I hope our clients will enjoy their end of February portfolio reviews.
Please feel free to visit us at Redlands [our coffee is great outside of load shedding times] and give us a ring if you need our help
