VAR Capital Head of Lending Tom Graham named in PAM 40 under 40

Tom Graham, VAR Capital’s Head of Lending and Client Director has been named in Top 40 under 40 category by PAM. The 2021 PAM Top 40 Under 40, sponsored by Jupiter Asset Management and supported by MSCI, is based on PAM Insight’s experience and knowledge of who is rising to the top quickly, and why.

Factors taken into account included the reputation or performance of the company that the nominee works for, feedback from senior executives, trajectory of promotion/business development success and relative age, and active involvement in promoting good organisational culture.

Since joining VAR Capital in 2019, Tom has led and transformed the lending offering for ultra-high net worth clients, as well as bringing in significant AUM.

He has also assisted the management team and introduced new key hires for the team and potential long term business partners.

Tom was first introduced to wealth management through an HSBC internship while studying economics at Durham University. He did not possess the required multilingual skills to join the HSBC graduate scheme and so took it upon himself to cold call the managing directors of various other private banks, landing a post at Barclays. He was promoted to a private banker role at the age of 25 – the youngest to achieve this position.

At VAR, a multi-family office, he has helped set up a new lending platform in which clients fund asset backed loans for other clients; sourced investments with new trusted business partner; and introduced other bankers to the firm.

He also created hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional annuity revenues for the firm in his first year, through both completed lending transactions and the introduction of tens of millions of new client funds into the discretionary investment management platform.

His nominator, Vikash Gupta said: “In just over a year, Tom’s contribution to the growth of the company has been remarkable. A large proportion of this has been achieved from his kitchen table.”

Ravi Bulchandani, Head of VAR’s investment committee and a Partner said: This is a thrilling news! I’ve enjoyed all our projects together, and client feedback has been unfailingly positive. The team at VAR looks forward to lots more projects under Tom’s leadership.