Paul Geddes

Spear’s Review

Paul Geddes is group chief executive officer of Evelyn Partners, taking on the role from Chris Woodhouse, who over five years led a business that the firm says ‘invested heavily in people, technology and developing its range of services’. 

Geddes previously served as head of QA Higher Education, a provider of education services and online courses to some of the world’s largest companies and organisations — including IBM, Microsoft, the Foreign Office and PepsiCo. He will now head up a wealth management and professional services firm that managed over £60 billion in assets for its clients as of June 2024. 

Geddes is well versed in the world of financial services, having served as head of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s insurance services department. He also presided over Direct Line’s IPO in 2012, which Geddes said at the time was already ‘operating as a standalone insurance company’. 

There has been some speculation in the press that Evelyn, born out of a consolidation of the old Tilney, Smith & Williamson and Towry wealth managers and now owned by private equity firms Permira and Warburg Pincus, could make a listing on the FTSE 250 stock exchange. Could Geddes be the driving force that eventually leads the wealth manager to go public?