John Spiers (entrepreneur)

John Spiers is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. He founded Bestinvest in 1986 and sold it to 3i Group in 2007.[1] He is now CEO of EQ Investors, a wealth management company in London and the EQ Foundation, a registered charity.

John Spiers
John Spiers
Born	(1950-09-16) 16 September 1950 Bristol, England
Nationality	English
Alma mater	Clare College, Cambridge
Occupation	Ceo
Known for	Founder of Bestinvest
Website	https://eqinvestors.co.uk/

John Spiers was born in Bristol in 1950. He attended Kingston Grammar School and gained an MA in Engineering in 1972 at Clare College, Cambridge where he was Captain of Boats and is now an Elizabeth de Clare Fellow. His first employment was as a Student Apprentice at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment in Aldermaston. From 1975 to 1986 he worked as a stockbroker in the City of London, latterly with W. Greenwell & Co. In 1986 he founded Bestinvest which he sold to 3i in 2007 for in excess of £165m. At the time of the sale Bestinvest was one of the leading wealth management companies in the UK with funds of £3.5bn under management and over 50,000 clients.[2]

In 2008 he set up the Spiers Family Foundation which has supported a number of charities with an emphasis on Early Intervention (e.g. WAVE Trust), poverty (e.g. Centre for Social Justice) and education (e.g. Sutton Trust, African Prisons Project).[3]

In 2014 he bought the financial planning arm of Truestone and renamed the business as EQ Investors.[4][5] EQ stands for emotional quotient. As CEO of EQ Investors he expanded the range of its activities and increased staff numbers to over 60.[6] EQ has a dedication to high ethical values and was one of the first UK companies to become a B Corporation.[7] His views are frequently sought by the financial press.[8][9][10]

The EQ Foundation[11] was established as a registered charity with an emphasis on supporting charities tackling the lack of social mobility. He is now leading the Giving is Great[12] initiative to provide charity donors with better information about the causes they support.[13]

Outside of work Spiers has represented England in the World Golf Croquet Championships[14] and is an active participant in historic motorsport, regularly competing in the Silverstone Classic, finishing 3rd in the International Trophy for pre-1966 GT cars in 2018 and 2nd in the Graham Hill Trophy at the 77th Goodwood Members Meeting.[15]

In 2018 Spiers was featured by the London Evening Standard in a wide-ranging[16] article.