Citigroup's Jim Cowles has been in London for 12 years and seems in no hurry to return to the US. He was well prepared for at least one of the UK’s cultural differences – rugby – having played fly-half for Ohio’s Denison University, where he studied economics before doing an MBA at Wharton. He supported England in the Rugby World Cup, about which, the less said the better.

He has been at Citi and its predecessors his entire career, starting in 1979 at Smith Barney, the Wall Street broker, and progressing through a wide range of roles, including head of debt capital markets, head of direct investments and deputy head of investment banking.