David Coombs doesn’t match the typical profile of a City fund manager. He was born in Cardiff, and most of his family lived in council housing. He dropped out of A-levels and never went to university. Growing up, he had no career aspirations and assumed he would work in his father’s car repair garage.
“There were no professionals [in finance] in my family or the people I grew up with. They were plumbers, carpenters and teachers,” says Coombs, who oversees multi-asset investments at Rathbones Asset Management.