AYU Member Spotlight: Dan Page of KPMG
Dan Page
KPMG
Dan Page is Head of Asset Management Advisory with KPMG Ireland (London). Dan is a senior advisory professional with more than 21 years of capital markets experience and has provided services to a wide range of clients including international banks, asset managers, single and multi-family offices and a broad variety of funds. Dan has worked on both sides of the investor coin; as such, he is well placed to understand the pressures that both new and existing managers and investors face throughout the full lifecycle of their enterprise risk management.
Dan’s remit at KPMG focuses on the development of the advisory practice which serves those who manage and invest in alternative funds or service that eco system. In addition, Dan works in a transactional capacity with corporate finance where he is a deal maker for financial services.
Hi Dan, what are you working on today?
Staying safe, sane and solvent during lockdown! Otherwise I am focused upon the three core pillars of the KPMG C-Suite advisory business; those who manage money, those who invest in those that manage money and those who service our sector. My focus is to form long term partnerships where we can deliver high value, unbiased boardroom advice to help our clients navigate the various challenges they will meet in every aspect of running their business bar alpha generation. Our clients here at KPMG, which range from Emerging Hedge Fund Managers through Single Family Offices to Sovereign Wealth Funds represent a delightful spread of strategy, geography and culture which is something I am very proud of.
How did you get to where you are now?
My work ethic and drive can be traced back to my time as a boxer in my younger years. The physical and emotional challenges the sport brings have certainly stood me in good stead for my career in finance and there are more similarities than you would first think. I spent my 20’s at Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs where I developed a rather different skill set but one that will similarly stay with me for life and this time firmly cemented my passion for our industry and its actors. The buy side leg of my career culminated in becoming Managing Director of Swiss-based Bedrock RealTime, part of the Swiss Asset Management Group, Bedrock. I was very fortunate to work with some exceptional people throughout this time and that I still do is what gets me up in the morning; it is a great privilege to work with such a broad church of cultures, nationalities and personalities every day at KPMG.
What attracted you to this business?
Oh that’s easy….the bright jackets of LIFFE and that is seemed a far easier way to pay my rent than getting punched in the face! What’s kept me in it though is the people and the impact we have as a relatively small industry by headcount on the world at large. Every day I feel privileged to interact with those I do and sit in the seat I am in.
What has been the most pivotal moment of your career so far?
My first day at Deutsche Bank, my life set itself in a different direction at that moment and I haven’t looked back since.
What aspect of our industry excites you the most?
The constant change and the pace at which our industry evolves. Our industry still attracts some of the greatest thinkers on earth and that in part fuels the pace at which we evolve as a business compared to some other sectors. I love that and it matches my personality well as I’m most comfortable in the chaos of it all.
Where do you celebrate?
Time is precious-waste it wisely.
I have a young daughter and I hold this mantra close to my heart. I celebrate every day I get to spend with her at such a formative age; travelling so much and the pace of our business brings this time into sharp focus and I value it more than anything else.
Otherwise I will gravitate to my natural church in the gym and teach at a variety of boxing clubs in the south east when I can, most notably Northgate which is still very much a proper spit and saw dust community gym which I love. It has been known for me to enjoy a vodka or two on occasion as well but the company in those moments is everything for me not the tipple or the environment.
What is at the top of your bucket list?
Driving Le Mans. I am notoriously a car enthusiast/uber geek, for as long as I can remember, and a regular at the Le Mans track. It is my dream to be able to drive in the Le Mans Classic following in the path of some of the greatest drivers and cars in history and I still hold a romantic vision of the “Gentleman Racers” of old which I dream of emulating in part.
What does success mean to you?
I’ve been more successful in many ways than I ever expected and I am grateful for those that have helped me along the way to here. In the next half of my life I hope to do two things from where I am today. Firstly and above all to ensure my daughter has security, opportunity and happiness. Secondly, to try and leverage the privilege I now have to have some tangible impact on the lives of others and primarily in the field of social capital for under privileged kids who are today like I was 20 or so years ago. I am a champion for a charity called Leadership Through Sport and Business for this reason; take a look and please do get involved folks, everyone that reads this can in some way!
What is the best advice you have ever been given?
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”.
The immortal words of Mike Tyson really have helped me along in more than one situation. In order to be a steady, trusted hand in a boardroom you first must be comfortable that planning will only get you so far. We live and work in an organic environment and are after all human, so being able to smoothly adapt and stay calm in the face of change or shock is a valuable asset in every facet of life. C-19 has done a good job of proving that point for me here!
Dan has been an AYU member since 2020.