John Spiers is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. He founded Bestinvest in 1986 and sold it to 3i Group in 2007. He is now Chair of EQ Investors, a wealth management company in London and runs The EQ Foundation, a registered charity. John Spiers was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

in 1950. He attended

Kingston Grammar School Kingston Grammar School is an independent co-educational day school in Kingston upon Thames, England. The school was founded by Royal Charter in 1561 but can trace its roots back to at least the 13th century.

and gained an MA in engineering in 1972 at

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

, where he is now an Elizabeth de Clare Fellow. His first employment was as a Student Apprentice at the

Atomic Weapons Research Establishment The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is a United Kingdom Ministry of Defence research facility responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the UK's nuclear weapons. It is the successor to the Atomic Weapons Research ...

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 fastest growing wealth management companies in the UK with funds of £3.5bn under management and over 50,000 clients. In 2008 he set up the Spiers Family Foundation which has supported charities with an emphasis on Early Years Intervention (e.g.

WAVE Trust WAVE Trust (Worldwide Alternatives to ViolencE) was formed in 1996 and registered as an international educational charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales under Number 1080189 in 1999. The charity is dedicated to reducing the key ...

), poverty (e.g.

Centre for Social Justice The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is an independent centre-right think tank based in the United Kingdom, co-founded in 2004 by Iain Duncan Smith, Tim Montgomerie, Mark Florman and Philippa Stroud. Political positions The organisation's stated ...

) and education (e.g.

Sutton Trust The Sutton Trust is an educational charity in the United Kingdom which aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage. The charity was set up by educational philanthropist, Sir Peter Lampl in 1997. Since then, it has unde ...

African Prisons Project Justice Defenders (formerly African Prisons Project, or APP) is a registered UK charity and U.S. nonprofit working in prison communities across Africa. Through legal education, training, and practice, Justice Defenders equips prisoners and prison o ...

). In 2014 he bought the financial planning arm of Truestone and renamed the business as EQ Investors. EQ stands for

emotional quotient Emotional intelligence (EI) is most often defined as the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions. People with high emotional intelligence can recognize their own emotions and those of others, use emotional information ...

. As CEO of EQ Investors he expanded the range of its activities and increased staff numbers to over 60. EQ emphasises ethics and was one of the first UK companies to become a

B Corporation In the United States, a benefit corporation (or in several jurisdictions including Delaware, a public-benefit corporation or PBC) is a type of for-profit corporate entity, authorized by 35 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, that include ...

. His views are frequently sought by the financial press. The EQ Foundation was established as a registered charity with an emphasis on supporting charities tackling the lack of

social mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society ...

. Spiers is now leading the Giving is Great initiative to improve the availability of data for charity donors and recipients. Spiers has represented England in the World Golf

Croquet Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Its international governing body is the Wor ...

Championships and is a participant in historic motorsport, competing in the

Silverstone Classic The Silverstone Classic is an annual three-day car and race event at the Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix. The event features hundreds of historic race cars in circa 20 races over the weekend, displays from over 100 car clubs wi ...

, 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. In 2018 Spiers was covered by the London Evening Standard in an article. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement award from the City of London Wealth Managers Association.

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