Photo credit: Harry Metcalfe/Wikipedia
Tomorrow I’ll be interviewing Michael Farmer for Sorted
magazine. Michael is an extremely successfully businessman, a Christian, a
family man and a big supporter of the Conservative Party (although not
necessarily in that order).
As the founder of RK Capital Management, Michael has become
one of London’s best-paid fund managers. The company’s main fund, Red Kite, is
one of the largest industrial metals hedge funds in the world.
Having left school at 18 and started out earning just £8 a
week, the entrepreneur now ships around 15-20% of China's total copper supplies.
And that’s a lot of copper. It’s no surprise he’s been nicknamed ‘Mr Copper’ by
his peers.
But rather than becoming increasingly greedy after his
success with his first company, MG Metals (and after helping to pick up the
pieces of it once it was torn apart by Enron), Michael decided to take himself
off to Bible School in Cornhill, London. I bet not many of his fellow fund
managers have done that.
"The idea of a City financier who's a Christian is
sometimes considered a contradiction in terms," Michael told The DailyTelegraph. With the animosity aimed at London’s financial community in
recent years, I imagine he’s used to taking a bit of flak. But being a member
of the “God Squad” (his words, not mine) is likely to have brought him double
trouble.
And these aren’t the only controversies Michael is courting:
he’s also responsible for donating £2.3 million to the Tory Party. He’s not one
to make a song and dance about this, but he recently decided to defend his
actions after hearing Lord Ashcroft criticise London financiers who he claimed were
supporting political parties because they stood to gain from it.
"You can call me a City fat cat if you want, but I'm
not giving away my hard-earned money for fun. I'm giving it away because I want
to fund something I genuine believe: that Cameron and the Tories will be a far
better government for the country than Labour," he says.
Having met with David Cameron to discuss the importance of family
values, Michael feels the Prime Minister shares his concerns and is sincere
about his intentions to preserve family life.
Conversely, Michael believes Labour is responsible for
breaking down families; of describing the family unit as a Victorian concept. “Labour's
idea of a family is three people who share a fridge," he says. However, as
a Christian, husband and father of three, he truly understands the value of
family life.
“I know that if things go wrong for me financially, I've got
my family to fall back on. If I lost my job or savings, I'd talk to Jenny and
we'd discuss belt-tightening, cutting debts, selling the house, whatever it
would take to come out the other side. It'd be tough, but far easier together,"
he concludes.
Do you share Michael’s faith in Mr Cameron? Should the
government be involved in family life? Is it right for Church and State should be
linked at all? Feel free to leave comments and any question suggestions below.
Be quick though – the interview starts at 10am GMT.
You can read the full story – with exclusive comment from Michael
Farmer – in the next issue of Sorted magazine.
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