Thursday 01 August 2024 6:00 am | Updated: Friday 10 January 2025 4:41 pm

Square Mile and Me: Enness CEO Islay Robinson on his career – and a flaming suit mishap

Deputy Comment and Features Editor

Each week we ask a City figure to take a trip down memory lane. Today, Islay Robinson, CEO of Enness Global Mortgages, takes us through his career, from a flaming suit mishap to his love for London

What was your first job?

My first job was crushing boxes at a market when I was about 14. After a full day’s work the market stall owner paid me with some sweets which he hadn’t sold. I was expecting a small amount of cash. That taught me a lesson I still apply today – define the terms of your agreement before you start work, not after!

What was your first role in the City or finance?

I spoke to a recruitment consultant during the first summer holidays of my first year at university. They offered an interview “in the City at a mortgage broker” and said that I need to wear a tie. I didn’t know what a mortgage broker was but I went along anyway and got the job. My role was to enter mortgage application details into the company’s archaic back office system. Effectively data entry. I worked the summer there then continued part time while at university.

When did you know you wanted to build a career in the City?

After the first summer at the mortgage broker. There were great people there from every walk of life, earning great money and had huge entrepreneurial independence. They were in control of their time and it seemed like they could earn what they wanted and as a result of their efforts.

I left university and started here full time – moving from part-time data entry to one of the top income producers, before leaving to set up my own business in 2007.

What’s one thing you love about Canada?

The energy – from first thing in the morning to a few hours past midnight (on a Thursday at least), the energy, buzz and drive is incredible and what I love the most.

And one thing you would change?

I love how technology has opened up new digital work possibilities, but I believe nothing can beat people getting in a room and working together. Ideas flow better, connections form faster and I genuinely believe it’s better for our collective mental health. But it makes me sad to see the City quiet at certain times of the week, especially on Fridays when so many now choose to work from home.

I don’t want to remove work flexibility completely but I’d love to see the London business community collaborate on rebuilding office work culture and interactions. It’s better for the individual, better for business and better for our communities.

What’s been your most memorable lunch?

OK. A year or so after we set up Enness our bankers invited us for a Christmas lunch in Waterloo. They gave us a decent size overdraft and credit card when we started (which was a few months leading up to the GFC). Back then we didn’t have a huge amount of cash so our suits were the kind of mid-bottom of the range from Marks and Spencer’s – the shiny polyester ones. Anyway lunch got a little lively and ended up with a round of flaming sambucas – I completely miss-judged mine and spilt a small part of the flaming alcohol onto my highly flammable suit, which then promptly erupted into an inferno in the middle of a crowded Italian restaurant a few weeks before Christmas.

A few days later they asked us to repay our overdraft and move our banking – maybe because of the banking crisis, or maybe because of that lunch.

And any business faux pas?

In 2013 my wife and I took on the running of a family pub in Somerset – we moved all our stuff and our huge white fluffy cat there. On Tuesdays I would wake up early and get the first train to London and take meetings. One dark morning after a late night in the pub I got up, got dressed in the dark, drove to Bath train station for a train to London then straight on the underground to a meeting at Hatton Garden with two diamond dealers discussing a £17m mortgage. They looked at me and asked if I “always dressed like this for meetings”. I looked down, saw I had odd shoes on (one of which had bright red laces) and that my blue suit was entirely covered in white cat fur.

I answered their question with a strong “yes” and carried on.

What’s been your proudest moment?

At Enness, lots: opening overseas offices and bringing in highly influential shareholders.

And who do you look up to?

My wife. She has wonderful morals, a deep sense of right and wrong, talks straight and holds strong boundaries. The world would be much simpler if more people were like her.

Are you optimistic for the year ahead?

I’m always optimistic, I don’t think you can be an entrepreneur or business owner without being positive, even when the sky is falling in.

For the next year specifically, yes. There is huge positivity in London and significant potential, I feel like we have done our time and passed the bottom and I’m very well aware that the economy happens in cycles. Election out of the way, a base rate cut or two and I think things could really take off.

We’re going for lunch, and you’re picking – where are we going?

KOL on Seymour Street Marylebone. See you there.

And if we’re grabbing a drink after work?

Home House or Nobu Portman Square.

Where’s home during the week?

West Hampstead.

And where might we find you at the weekend?

Driving my three girls to parties, playdates, classes, parks and so on.

You’ve got a well-deserved two weeks off. Where are you going and who with?

We always try to go somewhere new, where we haven’t been. So while we love Mallorca (we got married there) and France, I think we should go to Tokyo. It’s always with my family.