How did you pick yourself up from the tragic loss of your first child Georgie to leukaemia?
I kept on working because it was an escape. It wasn’t just her death, it was a 10 year battle for her life and an incredibly difficult thing to deal with emotionally. As a family we were on this emotional rollercoaster, and in many ways it was much easier to cope with the illness itself, I had Georgie there and there was a purpose – fighting to try and save her. When she actually died it became really difficult, I’d had 10 years to think about what it would be like, but it turned out to be much more difficult to deal with not only in terms of my own grief but in terms of having to deal with the whole family’s emotions. It’s an ongoing difficulty because I’ll never, ever get over it, and I don’t think any of us will. It’s enormously humbling watching an incredibly brave child fight for life, it made me think I had no right to complain about anything because no matter how much she was going through Georgie never complained. Although it’s been a desperate, dreadful thing to live through I wouldn’t give up having been her mother for anything in the world, it taught me so much, including that there’s more to life than wealth and success, and was been the defining experience of my life.

Do you think it’s important for employers to be understanding to employees if there’s a family at home?
Yes I think they should be more flexible, though it obviously depends on the role you do – there are some roles that you can’t do part time. I can’t say to the clients in my portfolio that I’ll manage your money Monday through Wednesday, then after that you’ll just have to accept that no one is looking after it, it’s just not possible. But there are other jobs that are perfectly possible to work three or four days a week then go back up to five days when the children are older.

How would you describe yourself as a manager?
I’m very collegiate and I actually, despite what some people may say, listen a lot and take advice. I’ve always needed an older male figure in my life to keep me on track because I recognise my limitations. I have lots of ideas and I need to be made to focus, I need somebody to say, ‘Well that’s a brilliant idea but we’re working on these three ideas over here so let’s just focus on those’. I need that sort of input, it’s really important to me.

Is there anything you won’t tolerate from your staff?
Politics; if you’ve got people fighting with each other they’re using up energy that they could be using to run the business better. That was the case at Morgan Grenfell, so I immediately made it very clear that it would not be tolerated. I’m always keen to make sure everybody is focused on what’s good for the business. The best teams are the ones that have a bit of tension but you don’t want so much tension the whole thing falls apart, it’s hard to find the right balance.

Do you think it’s important to consider your appearance or demeanor at work?
Yes, very, you should always be smartly turned out at work. I have very much moved away from the power suits of the 1980s when women used to wear these suits with massive shoulder pads, drip with gold and wear tons of makeup, while talking in a slighter lower voice to try and emulate men, that hard approach to life doesn’t work. Women should be women, I don’t want to be trussed up in a suit all day, it’s really uncomfortable and not very practical so I just wear what I feel like wearing. I think it’s really important to have your own identity rather than be in a uniform, but I would never, ever wear jeans to work.

Have you ever experienced discrimination in the workplace?
I haven’t, but that’s not to say it doesn’t exist. It’s a difficult area though, because a lot of the time I feel like it’s used as an excuse, rather than the person admitting that they just weren’t the best person for the job. If you work in a large organisation the key is to find a sponsor who believes in you, I had one at Warburg who really believed in me and if it hadn’t been for him I would never have been made a director at 28. He didn’t just promote me because he liked me though; he promoted me because I worked really hard. If you work really hard, do the best you can and you’ve got somebody in a senior position who recognises that, you will achieve.

Following your own divorce you spoke out about the pitfalls of the country’s divorce system, do you still think it needs to be revolutionised?
Absolutely, I think it’s appalling and something needs to change, though there doesn’t seem to be much will for it. I can’t understand why if somebody has never broken a wedding vow, man or woman, they should have to hand over their wealth to somebody that has. It’s extraordinary. Going beyond that, the access rights of fathers need to be dealt with as well, why should fathers have to dress up as Superman and climb onto the roof of Buckingham Palace just to be heard? A lot of women behave incredibly badly over access and it’s the children that suffer. 

What’s the best business advice you’ve ever been given?
My father always used to say, “Beware a big deal, beware a person coming and promising the earth”. It’s really important to be circumspect, especially if you are naturally optimistic and enthusiastic like I am, otherwise it’s easy to get swept away on the wave of a great idea. Always make sure to be calm and reflect occasionally, and be wary of people that promise everything.

How do you maintain a work/life balance for yourself?
Well I don’t really have any balance in that I don’t ever sit down, but what I am really good at is segregating work from home and I think that ability is really important if you’re going to succeed. I don’t have pictures of my children all over my desk for example, I am a soppy, sentimental sort of person but I don’t need to look at photos of them all the time, that’s my work environment.

Do you feel successful?
No, each day I’m striving to succeed. I am proud of what I’ve achieved over the past year in a pretty difficult environment but I have so much more left to do, especially in terms of charitable work. On the whole I give away about a quarter of my income every year, but I’d like to do more in Africa, which is something Georgie was terribly passionate about. I got involved with UNICEF after she died and I spent a lot of time with the children in Zambia. We built a school there dedicated to the memory of Georgia and we redid the intensive care unit at the hospital. A baby died in front of my eyes when I was there before it was redone, she wasn’t breathing so the nurse prodded her, then got a piece of masking tape wrote the time of death and stuck it over her tummy. Then she got an old rag and some string, trussed up the body and stuck it in this plastic container on the floor where there was another package. As you can imagine I went home, got the $400,000 dollars to redo the unit and made it happen. My idea of success is a bit like what Bill Gates’ idea of success is, being able to help other people.