Building SME Banking at Starling, meetings with pandas, and accidentally locking one of the richest men in the world in a car park. Each week, we dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, Symmie Swil, UK general manager at Upvest, takes us through her career in Square Mile and Me

CV

• Name: Symmie Swil
• Job title: General manager, UK, at Upvest
• Previous roles: Head of SME banking at Starling Bank, Deputy COO at Investec Corporate & Investment Bank
• Age: 40
• Born: Johannesburg
• Lives: London
• Studied: University of Sydney
• Talents: Still in search, but persistent in the meantime
• Motto: Either “What can we learn from this?” or “I’m so lucky I get to …”
• Biggest perk of the job? The people I work with and building something new and meaningful for millions of people
• Coffee order: Oat flat white
• Cocktail order: Gin & tonic or negroni
• Favourite book: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely – I love business psychology, and it’s a brilliant reminder of how much behaviour (and misbehaviour) drives decision-making.

What was your first job?

Working in a sandwich shop in the local shopping centre from age 14. At uni, I juggled lots of odd jobs – PA at an accounting firm, private tutor, census collector, election scrutineer… you name it!

What was your first role in the City?

At university, I worked in customer support at an independent equity research firm – but quickly found myself editing (and then writing) their stock tips newsletter: “Mine for dividends with these top 5 gold stocks”, that sort........

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