Capital International Group Co-founder, Peter Long, retires after 27 years

07 February 2023

Peter Long, Co-founder of Capital International Group, has announced he is stepping down from the Group’s Board of Directors after dedicating 27 years of his career to the company.

Originally based in Castletown, Capital International opened for business in 1996 with just a handful of staff, mostly Peter’s own family – Anthony and Helen Long, Robert Floate and David Long - all of whom had moved to the Island lock stock and barrel from the UK.

The initial aim was to provide specialist investment and dealing services - with negligible settlement risk - to Isle of Man institutions who wished to transact business in overseas markets. Previously, almost all such business from the Island was channelled through London based brokers.

To achieve this, Capital International linked up with Pershing Securities who had earlier acquired employees from Peter’s previous partnership around the time of the City of London’s Big Bang.

With two of Peter’s former partners working as Directors of Pershing and many senior staff being former colleagues, an agreement was put together whereby Pershing accepted all the legal and trade settlement risks.

That agreement remains in place to this very day! In Peter’s time as a director, the business has gone from strength to strength with continual development and expansion of its service offering. The stockbroking business Peter first launched has transformed into an open architecture, online trading platform. The Group has also built an outstanding Investment Management department and more recently it launched the Island’s first ever digital corporate bank.

Peter started the business with the mission of providing the best possible service to clients and today the Group continues to do just that, entrusted by over 10,000 clients to look after over $5bn of assets. In its 27 years in operation, the Group has grown significantly, now employing over 200 people across the Isle of Man and South Africa.The family members who launched the venture back in 1996 are still very much involved today: Anthony is Group Chairman; his wife, Helen, is a Senior Operations Manager; David is a Group Main Board Director and Chief Investment Officer;

Robert is a Group Non-Executive Director and additionally Anthony and Helen’s eldest son and Peter’s grandson, Alex, has joined the business as an Investment Product Manager. When reflecting on all this Peter, while expressing delight, emphasised that: “This kind of development and success can only be achieved with the backing of the highest qualified and motivated teams, and we are fortunate to have these in every aspect of our business. What is so thrilling for me, as I head for retirement, is the knowledge that, with such talented people all around - and continuing to join us - this kind of growth can continue for many years.”

He added:

“It is the fulfilment of a dream and, while perhaps no longer a family firm, we are all now part of a much wider Capital family – all of whom are true professionals.”

Peter’s retirement was announced at the Group’s recent event, The Playbook 2023. Capital International Group’s CEO, Greg Ellison, who hosted the event, said:

“The Group has lived and breathed Peter’s original core values of innovation, integrity, and excellence since day one and will continue to do so forever more. With many of our clients, intermediaries and friends assembled today, I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to Peter and his beloved wife Heather to wish them all the best for their well-deserved retirement.”