Up Close & Personal with Martin Gilbert BY WONG WEI-SHEN

Published: Saturday November 23, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday November 23, 2013 MYT 6:58:47 AM
Up Close & Personal with Martin Gilbert
BY WONG WEI-SHEN
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Martin Gilbert
SCOTTISH lad Martin Gilbert is no stranger to Malaysian soil. Having spent a good part of his childhood here, he is well-accustomed to the country’s intricacies through the local delicacy, rich culture and people.
Growing up in Asia turned out to be a great advantage to Gilbert, now chief executive and founder of Aberdeen Asset Management Plc. It is one of the reasons he chose to set up office here.
“I knew that Asia was going to be the growth area of the world. If we relocated the team out here, we would do well,” he says.
Aberdeen Asset Management is the first foreign fund manager to have been awarded a domestic asset management licence in Malaysia.
Seating in a boardroom situated on the 26th floor of Menara IMC, amidst the concrete jungle skyline in bustling Kuala Lumpur, Gilbert shares his personal journey with StarBizWeek.
Boarding woes
Although he was born in Brickfields, he lived at Carey Island, some 14km off Port Klang with his parents, where his father worked for Harrisons & Crosfield then.
He schooled at The Alice Smith School for five years, the oldest British international school in Malaysia, and one of the oldest in South-East Asia.
“I started boarding at the age of five in KL so I could go to school there. It was interesting,” he says.
Later on, he was sent to school at co-ed independent Gordonstoun School in Moray, Scotland for nine years. Although having been through the boarding system in KL, boarding in Scotland was different. “It was cold and miserable and windy,” he cringes.
Although he left KL to go to boarding school in Scotland when he was 10 years of age, Gilbert says he spent most of his holidays in Malaysia, which really formed his love for the country. “It’s a great place to grow up,” he says.
How it all started
Gilbert was educated in Aberdeen and graduated with a law degree, and then went on to do a masters degree in accountancy from the University of Aberdeen. He later qualified as a chartered accountant in 1980.
In the early years of his career, he worked at legal firm Brown Robb Cruickshank, which had an investment department. Together with two partners, Gilbert bought out that investment department in 1983 and formed Aberdeen Asset Management.
“We realised the days of the Scottish fund managers being part of accountancy or law firms were over. We realised that the world had changed and you had to be set up on your own and independent. So, we worked it out and bought the business,” he says.
Being one of the few genuine global independent asset managers, he says Aberdeen Asset Management’s story is one of remarkable growth.
“We built a global asset manager capable of managing money anywhere in the world. We manage equities, bonds, property and solutions, et cetera,” he says. From a firm of only US$75mil in assets under management to the US$315bil it manages today, Gilbert says he occasionally feels he has to pinch himself. “It still surprises me everyday that we have become as big as we actually are as a business,” he says.
Being part of the company, from its birth up to now, 30 years down the road, Gilbert says he feels a special affinity with it.
“When we went through the tough times from 2002 till 2004, never did it enter my thoughts to give up or leave. Because when you have this special affinity, you also have the desire to stay and sort it out,” he says.
Aberdeen Asset Management was faced with bleak circumstances when its investments in split-capital investment trusts, which it was a major investor in, dramatically collapsed in 2002.
But Gilbert managed to pull the company back from the brink and bring it to where it is today.
The Aberdeen culture
He attributes the Aberdeen culture as a key part of the business. “We have a strong culture, and we like bringing in graduates and training them. The graduates we brought in 15 to 20 years ago are now running large chunks of money for us,” he says.
It gives him great satisfaction to see these graduates succeed and do well in the business, he adds.
His duties now involve a lot more travelling because it is a global business, but he adds that most of the time it is about sorting out problems.
“We are a people business, so at any given time you’ve got to try and keep all your people as happy as you can. That’s what we spend most of our time doing – making sure you run the business well and above all making sure we do the right things for our clients,” he says.
While he enjoys his work, he adds that it is indeed hard work. “You’re on call now 24/7 because you’re never too far away from your Blackberry. There’s no question now of going for a holiday and shutting down your Blackberry for a week. People would think you have gone mad!” he laughs.
With a global organisation like Aberdeen Asset Management, there is ongoing communication 24 hours a day. Although technology has allowed for seamless communication, he warns that people should be careful and disciplined with it.
“With messages and e-mails constantly coming in, you’ve still got to make sure you get some sleep! I try to switch it off at night but the rest of the time it is turned on constantly,” he says.
It is amazing, he exclaims, how the digital revolution is dramatically and constantly changing people’s lives.
“It’s great because if you think about it, in the past, no one would leave their desk because they couldn’t communicate if they weren’t at their desk. The only method of communication was by fixed line or telephone. So with technology now, we communicate much more. It is better this way because you’re constantly in touch,” he says.
The Malaysian flavour
Gilbert loves getting his dose of curries, roti canai and kuey teow. Also, the great thing about Malaysia is that it is a melting pot of all cultures, he says.
Having been born here, he is heavily influenced by the work ethic practised and the sacrifices people make for education here.
With three children of his own, he says this prompted him to work hard to give his children the opportunity of having a good education. “You want to give them the best chance you can in educating,” he says.
His children are all above the age of 21, and have all done well, he says. Meanwhile, he says he met his wife Fiona at university, where she was working.
She is currently the head of department of radiology at the University of Cambridge. “She has had a very successful career. We live in Aberdeen, Cambridge and London, but Aberdeen is our main home,” he says.
Gilbert enjoys skiing the most with his family. “I ski anywhere in the world. The alps are great!” he says.
When he was younger he took up golf, and used to play often. “You’ve got to play a lot, almost everyday even. The guys I play golf with are all really good players. One of them even played nationally,” he says.
He adds that he sails quite a bit during the summer. “It’s just cruising, but it has to be somewhere warm like the Mediterranean, which is so different from Europe where when the sun shines, you think, my God! What’s happening?” he says.
When asked if he would be retiring soon, Gilbert laughs it off and replies: “No, I’ve got to keep working. I said recently that I would work as long as Alex Ferguson keeps working. But even though he has retired, I’ll keep going. It keeps you young and I love it because it’s great fun!” he says.

Up Close & Personal with Martin Gilbert BY WONG WEI-SHEN

Up Close & Personal with Martin Gilbert BY WONG WEI-SHEN

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