Adrian Waddingham CBE, Former Non-Aldermanic Sheriff and President of the Ward of Cheap Club
Adrian Waddingham CBE has brought to the City of London not only a multifaceted and highly successful career but significant contributions to its governance as well. Having been a founder partner of Barnett Waddingham LLP, now the largest independent firm of actuaries in the UK, his other roles have included (but are not limited to) non-Aldermanic Sheriff, Master of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries, President of the Ward of Cheap Club and member of the Council of City and Guilds. He was awarded the CBE in 2012 for services to pensions and the actuarial profession.
Still an active member of the community, he was kind enough to share some of his experiences and views about the past, present and future of the City, and in particular the Ward of Cheap.
From Liverpool to London
Having trained as an actuary in Liverpool in 1981, Adrian made his way to the City of London via Kuala Lumpur, where he had initially been posted in 1985 before being recalled to the UK. After the firm was taken over by an American company, he decided to set up his own business, having been used to the rigours of running his own office. It started as a small practice but jumped in size in 1989 both through its own successes and a merger with another small firm. Adrian is characteristically understated about the achievement, saying:
“Our timing was good, and the company kept me very busy until I retired about five years ago. They seem to be coping without me though – they now have 90 partners and around 1600 members of staff.”
He notes that during his career the office kept him sufficiently occupied that he had little time for anything else, saying:
“It was late in the day that I came into the livery movement. I joined the Worshipful Company of Actuaries in the 1980s, but it was only in my late fifties that I felt relaxed enough to give it a proper amount of time, which is quite typical. In 2010 I had the chance to become Master, which I enjoyed tremendously, so much so that I finished my year thinking I could do more. In 2013 I threw my hat into the ring to become one of the two Sheriffs in City of London. There was no competition, so I was elected, which meant that my wife and I moved into the Old Bailey for an exciting year working closely with the Lord Mayor. At that time, the firm had grown large enough that they were kind to me, and I was able to take full advantage of my Shrievalty, which in many ways was the start of my retirement.”
Life After London
Not one to sit on his laurels, while Adrian might have officially put away his abacus in 2018 after 47 years working as an actuary (“you can have too much of a good thing”, he says), he remains steadfastly involved with the City in a variety of capacities. They include, amongst other things, being a member of the Ward of Cheap Club of which he was President in 2021, as a Senior Warden of Guild of Freedman of which he will be Master next year, and as Chairman of The City of London Sheriffs’ Society.
As if that wasn’t enough, Adrian has also swapped his calculator for his proverbial quill, discovering a talent for writing. Having found a gap in English history four years ago, he has written about the lesser-known contemporary of Thomas Becket, Nicholas Breakspear, who became history’s only English pope to date. His first book, Breakspear: The English pope, was published by The History Press in 2022 and is already in its second edition. He is now working on his second book.
A Global Centre
Despite a burgeoning literary career, Adrian’s passion for the Square Mile, its contribution and its purpose remain firmly intact. Noting that although it has approximately 615,000 workers as of 2022, the City of London has an almost village quality to its community:
“Being Sheriff really brought home to me how much authority and influence the City of London has. London has a threefold privilege that’s the basis for the reason it thrives. The first is geography (it’s in the middle of the time zones), then the good fortune that its prevailing language has become widely used, and that English law is widely respected. Those are the things that bring commerce to the City of London to this day. You see that right up-close working with the Lord Mayor who makes a dozen trips or so throughout the year, and whose agenda is largely set by the Cabinet Office. They use the prestige of the Lord Mayor of the City of London to help achieve the country’s commercial objectives by shining a spotlight on London.”
A Benevolent City
Within that, Adrian is particularly passionate about the extent of charitable giving that the City oversees – something which is often downplayed in a bid not to seem self-aggrandising.
“Even I was staggered to understand the extent of charitable giving of the 111 Livery Companies. Last year it amounted to around £70m and that’s not untypical as an annual contribution. For example, there’s around £12m a year spent on green spaces like Epping Forest and Hampstead Heath. The Old Bailey, the most famous court in the world, costs around £7m a year to maintain as a gift from the City of London to the people.Also, the City Bridge Foundation was set up around 900 years ago and maintains London’s five bridges Tower, London, Southwark, Millennium and Blackfriars bridges whilst giving surplus funds to award grants to charitable organisations across Greater London.”
Adrian highlights that the lion’s share of the City’s benevolence goes into education. An area that’s seen as key to the City’s long-term success, he is passionate about the need to continue developing a pool of well-educated people so that businesses can continue to survive.
He says: “In recent years we have seen the effects of that giving with a couple of the inner London academies sending more students to Oxbridge than the likes of Westminster, St Paul’s and Eton, which is wonderful. I am a member of one of the oldest livery companies in the City – the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers – who have less to do with haberdashery these days and in fact give all their energy to education. They alone run 18 schools around the country, including Haberdashers’ Borough Academy. They’re doing brilliant things that are not always visible.”
Reinvesting in the City of London
Of course, you can’t spend more than 47 years in the City and not observe some changes, and arguably the most notable has been the impact of Covid and the return to a new normality. Adrian speaks of an initial worry that the demand for office space would decrease, and that people wouldn’t return to the physical community of the City in the same way as before. However, although it’s taken time to evolve, he notes that once again the streets and sandwich shops are busy. Remote working has meant that people work from home one or two days a week, but in fact the consequence has been reinvestment in higher quality offices on behalf of employers.
“Businesses are doing their best to encourage staff into their offices, so they’re making them nicer. They are investing in more square footage per person, in-house coffee shops, gyms and so forth. Employers are focusing on wellbeing and that’s a good consequence – the real winners are companies and employees.”
On a more general note, he speaks of the work ethic that runs through London: “I think the work ethic of graduates now is much greater than when I was starting 40 years ago. The City can take some credit for that – it’s a magnet, it draws people in who want to work and achieve.”
Asked what he observes to have remained the same over the course of his career, he says: “There’s always something to worry about. You read about the London Stock Exchange and there are a few big names moving to New York, but the City isn’t blind and they’re reacting to that, for example, reviewing the rules for listing to remove unnecessary obstacles. The requirements for corporate governance are pretty high in London while other places are less discriminating but in the long-term it must be the case that good governance prevails. Although I’m an actuary, I’m an optimist by nature. One thing I would like to see is that we do everything we can to remove obstacles to recruiting the best talent from around the world – if we cannot allow the brightest minds to come and live and work in London, we will be storing up a problem.”
An Opportunity to Contribute to The City
Considering the attributes of the Ward of Cheap in particular, Adrian echoes the words of Charles Ledsam, his predecessor as President of the Ward of Cheap Club, saying that its importance is not least because its geography includes Guildhall, home to the City of London Corporation.
He believes the Ward has become more egalitarian and more diverse in recent years, in part thanks to Ledsam’s tenure, with the Ward clubs attracting a broader cross-section of people from the community, and more active businessmen and women to get involved and contribute to London’s success. He caveats this saying: “That said, the link between the Ward Club and the elector in the ward is not yet as close as it could be, which ought to be on the agenda in the future.”
Asked why people should join the Ward of Cheap Club, Adrian says:
“For the simple reason that it is social, it’s fun, and by joining you’re helping increase awareness of the good but hidden work that goes on in the City of London. As a member you pay a small but worthwhile part in supporting the civil city, elections of the Lord Mayors, Aldermen and Common Councillors who help make the City of London a well-run corporation and the envy of corporations across the country. It has unique powers that apply nowhere else. I consider myself lucky that by accident I worked in London and have been able to play a small part in City governance.”
If you want to be more involved with the City’s business community and help contribute to its ongoing success and improvement, consider joining the Ward of Cheap Club and explore the website for more information.