Julian Brookson spent most of his career working within the Investment Banking industry. He started on the graduate programme at a large bank in the mid-1990s after leaving university with a degree in economics. Upon finishing the programme his first role was as a government bond trader where he learnt more about real world economics financial markets and pricing financial instruments. As a part of this role, he also started working building pricing spreadsheets for himself and other bond traders on the desk and soon realised that he enjoyed this more than the actual trading side of the business.
Julian then moved to another bank to pursue a technology role. During this time he worked closely with the derivative traders to enhance the bank’s applications according to the current and future challenges of the business. He then took on a management position and ended up running several large technology teams. Although the roles were varied in scope he continued to keep in close contact with the trading stakeholders, using his previous experience to help understand their needs and how technology could be used to help them.
Following the enhanced focus on regulation and control within the financial sector post the Great Financial Crash in 2008, Julian moved into a number of different regulation programme management roles during the 2010s. Julian continued in this capacity before retiring from full-time corporate life in 2018 to spend more time with his young family.
Since then, Julian has kept himself busy with a number of start-up and consulting initiatives. Not all have proven to be successful but he has enjoyed the challenges that come from working within a smaller structure, acquiring new skills, and learning about new industries.
Outside of the work environment, Julian is an avid reader and lists a number of authors amongst his favourites including Stephen King and more recently Patricia Highsmith. Julian also enjoys participating in a number of different sports including cycling, golf, and more recently padel.
Julian likes to cook and lists a number of traditional British dishes amongst his favourites including toad-in-the-hole and well as Italian cuisine. He also plays poker rather badly when the opportunity allows.
