Martin Hirst

Chief Executive

Martin has always been in the Financial Services Industry. He initially trained as an accountant from 1975 and then identified an opportunity to set up his own business within retail financial services through Hambro Life in 1979. He quickly progressed to become one of the youngest managers in the company in 1982 and soon progressed further to become Group Manager for Leeds. Hambro Life then became Allied Dunbar in 1985 and in 1992 his group were the most successful in the country.

In 1998, when Allied Dunbar became part of the Zurich Advice Network group, an opportunity arose to build a "super franchise" where 100% of time was spent on client work and in 1999 the practice was recognised as being the most successful in Allied Dunbar / Zurich history.

In 2004, seeing limitations in client offering, Martin recruited Jonathan Hardaker to help establish the consultancy as directly authorised Independent Financial Advisers. In difficult business times the practice has continued to grow year on year as the client offering has widened and improved. On a personal basis, Martin is married to Michelle and has three children, Rebecca who is in fashion, Elliot is a law student and Olivia is studying psychology.

Martin is a follower of the company ethos of spread of assets and is a keen investor in property, equities and other investments. He feels this gives the practice a keen business edge over competitors. Martin supports various charity organisations and enjoys all aspects of sport being a member at Royal Ascot and Sandmoor Golf Club. He also supports Leeds United FC.