Huw van Steenis
Huw van Steenis | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 27, 1969 United Kingdom |
| Occupation(s) | Financial expert, consultant |
| Known for | Vice chair at Oliver Wyman; senior adviser to CEO at UBS; led UBS sustainable finance committee; led Bank of England finance review |
Huw van Steenis (born 27 September 1969) is a British financial expert currently serving as vice chair at the management consultancy Oliver Wyman. He previously held the position of senior adviser to the CEO at UBS and led UBS' sustainable finance committee as its chair.
Van Steenis also acted as senior adviser to Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of England, where he spearheaded a comprehensive review on the future direction of finance. His earlier roles include global head of strategy at Schroders, a UK-based multinational asset management firm, and Global Coordinator for Banks and Diversified Financials within Equity Research at investment bank Morgan Stanley. He is widely acknowledged for his influential perspectives on transforming the investment sector.
Education
Van Steenis earned a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Trinity College, Oxford. He further advanced his education by obtaining an MBA from INSEAD Business School in 1994.
Career
In 2004, van Steenis introduced the concept of the "Asset Management Barbell," forecasting that asset allocation would polarize towards low-cost passive products such as ETFs and high-margin, high-alpha investments, thereby challenging traditional asset managers occupying the mid-market segment.
He coined the term "Balkanisation of Banking Markets" in 2012 to describe how regulatory barriers within the Eurozone were causing fragmentation in cross-border banking lending, thereby complicating efforts to restore an integrated lending market.
On 1 May 2018, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney appointed van Steenis to lead a strategic review aimed at enhancing the Bank’s operational agenda and capabilities. The resulting 2019 report advocated for modernizing regulations around digital payments, granting new payment firms access to the Bank’s balance sheet, implementing climate stress tests for financial institutions, encouraging disclosures related to low-carbon transitions, and advancing the use of technology by both regulators and financial firms to bolster systemic resilience.
In 2020, van Steenis was appointed co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Financial Services. He has publicly endorsed UK government programs such as the Help to Buy housing scheme alongside his colleague Charles Goodhart.
Van Steenis joined the Board of English National Opera in 2015 and was appointed to the University of Oxford Endowment Investment Committee in 2020. In 2023, he became a member of the Climate Advisory Board for NBIM, which manages the Government Pension Fund of Norway.
Awards and recognition
In Q1 2009, van Steenis received the title "European Banker of the Quarter" from The Wall Street Journal's Financial News in recognition of his contributions during the banking crisis and policy formulation. The judges praised him as "one of the most respected and influential commentators on industry challenges … who has helped establish the US bank as an authority on European policy response." Anthony Hilton, City Editor at the Evening Standard, described him as "among Europe's most authoritative banking analysts." He was voted top equity research analyst for Banks and Diversified Financials twelve times in institutional investor surveys.
Van Steenis also earned accolades for forecasting accuracy, including twice being named European "Stock Picker of the Year" for Banks and Financials by Reuter's Starmine awards. In 2008, he was recognized as a 'Rising Star Under 40' for the third time by Wall Street Journal's Financial News due to his early identification of funding crises and outperforming sector benchmarks by over 25% while managing Morgan Stanley's financial portfolio.
Personal life
Van Steenis is married to Camilla Cavendish, a journalist and life peer known as Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice. He is also the great nephew of the renowned Dutch botanist Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van Steenis.