Russell Skinner joined Blue Sky in 2009 as a Paraplanner. As a Financial Planner he now works with clients to create coherent strategies to meet their goals and manage their risks. Russell thrives on detail and is responsible for much of the portfolio management, as well as the development of new systems and tools to improve the client experience in his relatively new role of CTO.
As Russell celebrates 15 years with Blue Sky, we asked him to share some insights and reflections on his time with the business.
Can you remember your initial interview with Blue Sky?
“Absolutely! I set out early to ensure I was at the office with time to spare and took a quick stroll in the surrounding area. The white office buildings stood out like a beacon amongst scruffier industrial buildings.
What I really liked about Gary, in that interview, was that he didn’t sit there and gloat about how he and the other advisers had bought the office building with their group pension, something two other firms had spent more time on than actually finding out about me.
I remember being stunned for a moment when Gary said they didn’t have the job opening as advertised… thankfully, this was just Gary being his usual playful self, and what he asked next was simply “are you multi-functional?”. By this, Gary was looking to find out if I could adapt to working on many different aspects of the business, not just be a Paraplanner.”
Career Progression and Highlights
“I started as a Paraplanner, supporting Gary in prepping for meetings, writing reports and completing paperwork with clients who wished to proceed with recommended strategies. That part of my role has remained constant throughout.
Over the years though, I have become a Planner in my own right, also a Director of the business, and now I am our Chief Technical Officer too which is a role I really enjoy. I think I hit the “multi-functional” mark Gary was initially after!
The main project which has been a constant since my first week at Blue Sky, has been the development of our Investment Dashboard. This allows us to engage with clients in terms of the performance of different strategies, the underlying holdings, and the risk of those strategies, in a much more dynamic way than was previously possible. When I started, we had to prepare a range of charts for each meeting and be ready to prepare additional charts during the meeting if required. Now, we’ve built this to be all available at the touch of a button and continues to evolve!”
Client Happiness
“We see clients every day, but it is always a privilege to do cash flow planning with someone for the first time and see how instrumental it is in changing their lives. The most rewarding moment is the look of relief on a client’s face when we confirm they can retire whenever they want. It really is a sentence that changes everything for them.”
Fun in the workplace
“Well, there’s been a lot over the last 15 years but, my funniest moment has been causing the end of Secret Santa in the office at my first Blue Sky Christmas party. I pulled Gary from the hat, and knowing he was a lifelong Everton fan, bought him a lovely Liverpool scarf. He blamed every other chap there and the scarf very quickly went missing. There was never a Secret Santa again after that… perhaps it’s just a coincidence, perhaps not.”
Life Outside Work
“It’s not just my career that’s moved on in the last 15 years. I also got married and had two sons. We love spending time together and Dorset is a special place to do that. I love to cook, binge-watch TV shows and help the boys work out tricky parts of their computer games.
I like to travel too – I thoroughly enjoyed a long weekend in Iceland with a friend in 2012, seeing the Northern Lights. It’d be great to go back one day. I also want to see more of America too and going back to Disney and Universal Studios in Orlando for a third time would be super fun whilst the kids are still young.”
Hidden Talents
“I can do a Rubiks cube in 2 minutes and 18 seconds!”
Final Words
“It’s been a fantastic journey over the last fifteen years, both at work and personally, and I look forward to the next fifteen with opportunities and challenges alike. Big thanks to Gary for all he does for me and the rest of the team. This is a great place to work and becoming an EOT in 2022 has really cemented that.”
Russell Skinner