Upon graduation, Richard Boath fell into finance for the princely sum of £500.

Leaving university with a degree in management sciences, Boath was offered two jobs. One, on Unilever's prestigious marketing graduate scheme, offered him a yearly salary of £5,250, while the second, at Bank of America, paid £5,750. He took the latter, starting a lengthy career in finance which has led him to joint responsibility for equity capital markets, debt capital markets, leveraged finance and loan origination at Barclays Capital in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.