Inside Robey Warshaw, the firm that will make George Osborne very rich
The former Chancellor is abandoning his portfolio career to join a boutique advisory firm that has helped broker multi-billion pound deals
2 February 2021 • 12:36pm
George Osborne will give up roles at BlackRock and the Evening Standard to join the Mayfair-based advisory firm
When Morgan Stanley banker Simon Robey was asked by
The Telegraph in 2005 if investment bankers make too much money, he admitted that maybe in the “boom years of 1999 to 2000, it was a little too easy” to get rich.
“I think those days are probably gone,” he said, years after falling into banking by accident. He wanted to be a professional singer, but Lazard was pitching itself to students in the room next door to the cabaret he was performing in at Oxford so he popped in and got a job with the investment bank instead.
Last modified on Wed 3 Feb 2021 00.13 EST
Sir Simon Robey had his career planned out. He wanted to become a professional opera singer and his dream was to sing on stage at the Royal Opera House, but he accidentally stumbled into investment banking.
It’s a decision he occasionally regrets while singing in the shower in the morning. But Robey, 60, turned out to be a pretty good banker, and has been described as the City’s “trillion dollar man” for the cumulative size of the mega-deals he has worked on, including advising the Cadbury board on the sale of the 197-year-old chocolate company to America’s Kraft in 2010. His sought-after advice has earned him at least £137m in the last seven years alone.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has picked up a new job job as an investment banker after leaving posts at the Evening Standard and BlackRock.
Mr Osborne, 49, served in David Cameron s Cabinet between 2010 and 2016, before Theresa May became prime minister.
He then served as a backbench MP until the 2017 General Election, while taking up new roles in media and banking.
Last year he was promoted from editor to editor-in-chief at the London Evening Standard.
He has now left the role, as well as a £650,000-a-year, one-day-a-week position he held at US fund manager BlackRock.
George Osborne served in David Cameron s Cabient from 2010 to 2016, since then he has taken on a number of high-profile jobs, some of which boast a six-figure salary. He is expected to leave the Evening Standard and BlackRock in March to join banking firm Robey Warshaw
George Osborne to join Robey Warshaw
Former Chancellor will give up roles at BlackRock and the Evening Standard to join the Mayfair-based boutique advisory firm
George Osborne
George Osborne is becoming a full-time banker at Robey Warshaw, the merger house behind some of Britain s biggest corporate takeovers.
The former chancellor s move, first reported by the
Financial Times, means he will give up his roles at BlackRock and the
Evening Standard.
Mr Osborne s appointment marks the first time that the boutique advisory firm has hired a partner since it was set up by bankers Sir Simon Robey and Simon Warshaw in 2013 alongside founding member Philip Apostolides.
George Osborne takes up full-time banking role at Robey Warshaw
Former chancellor George Osborne will take up the role of partner at Robey Warshaw in April (Getty Images)
George Osborne is joining boutique investment bank Robey Warshaw, as he shuns a portfolio of wide-ranging roles to become a full-time mergers and acquisitions banker.
The former chancellor will step down from his current roles as editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard and a senior advisor to Blackrock at the end of March, taking up a full-time role as partner at Robey Warshaw in April.
London-based Robey Warshaw has advised on some of the largest deals in the UK since its inception in 2013, including Comcast’s successful takeover bid for Sky.