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Alumnus of the month - December 2010

Iain Wallace
LLB Law

Ian Wallace

Whilst reading Law at LSBU, Iain Wallace realised his passion for business. By combining his two interests – law and business - Iain has achieved a successful career in regulation and compliance in the financial markets. He is now able to use his expertise to give back by providing advice to LSBU Enterprise students on floating their companies on the stock exchange.

Iain choose to read Law at LSBU, but found that his interest changed during his studies and he became increasingly interested in the business world. Many of his friends were reading Business Studies and he also had the opportunity to complete work experience for a major firm of Stockbrokers. This led Iain to focus his dissertation on ‘insider dealing in the stock market’, which combined his two great passions – law and business.

After graduating he moved on to completing his solicitor finals course, although he realised even though he enjoyed law that this wasn’t the direction he wanted to take his career in.

Soon after completing the course Iain got a job as a stockbroker in Glasgow, near where his family were relocating. His success in finding a good job after graduating was down to his motivation, work experience and very much to graduating with a 2:1 in Law at LSBU. After initially spending time on the international dealing desk, Iain then moved to the private client side of the organisation before leaving to join another stock-broking firm in Glasgow, where he developed his own client base.

In 1996 Iain moved back to London securing himself a position with the Securities and Futures Authority, which then became the Financial Services Authority, where his role changed to visiting stockbrokers to ensure they were following all applicable laws and regulatory standards. Iain’s experience working in stock-broking firms helped him to progress in his role and understand how to analyse such businesses whilst working at the FSA. Iain thoroughly enjoyed his time as a regulator as it gave him a good insight and overview of the industry.

The next big move in his career was to HSBC Investment Bank where he managed a compliance team within the private client side. Iain wasn’t long at HSBC before he was poached by The Share Centre. After consideration Iain joined The Share Centre as Director of Compliance and Legal Services. After beginning a degree in law and working within the stock-market Iain now has the balance of both his interests in his job. Whilst at The Share Centre he completed a master’s degree in Financial Services Law (LLM) with distinction.

Iain put a lot of his success in his masters down to his relevant learning experience gained at LSBU. “My law degree gave me a great foundation to complete my masters. This gave me an advantage to others on the course having achieved a good degree at LSBU.”

Having worked as a private client stockbroker and for the FSA has helped Iain to provide an effective yet fair service to his clients, and progress within his career. He is still currently working at The Share Centre which he is very much enjoying.

“I am very happy at The Share Centre, my role is very diverse and I have been involved with many exciting projects, acquisitions and other initiatives.”

Iain really enjoyed his time studying at LSBU and found the course very beneficial to his career. Understanding the importance of education has led Iain to want to give back. He therefore arranged for our Enterprise Associate students to be given a presentation on how to float their businesses by The Share Centre. The Stock Exchange can be a daunting prospect to young business entrepreneurs and so having the opportunity to learn from experts within the field is indispensible.