Each week, we dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, Mike Walters, CEO at Form3 and former Barclays big cheese, takes us through his career in finance, and the best advice he’s picked up in Square Mile and Me

• Job title: CEO at Form3
• Previous roles: Chief product officer at Form3, product director at Barclaycard, head of payment product at Barclays
• LLB Law, MA Management
• Go big or go home
• Biggest perk of the job? People – I get to meet such a huge range of people all over the world.
• Coffee order: Oat flat white
• Cocktail order: Old fashioned
• Favourite book: The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Mallaby

What was your first job?

I worked in an independent local camera shop – back when taking in films to process was most of the business!

What was your first role in the City?

I joined the Barclays Leadership Programme straight out of university. The first role for everyone was customer facing, which is a really good foundation. My clients were the largest UK companies, and I was there to help manage their relationship with the bank.

When did you know you wanted to build a career in business?

I’ve always been curious, and had worked out at school that one of the best ways to experience different industries would be accounting, law or management consultancy. I headed to uni to read law and very quickly realised that the piece that was most interesting was the corporate and commercial dimension of cases, rather than specifically looking at exactly how contracts might work! So I quickly moved to focus my studies on finance and banking. I joined the Barclays Leadership Programme, which I loved.

Over my time at Barclays I really enjoyed working with clients, matching what they needed with all the capabilities across the group globally. From there I moved from managing clients, to managing teams who managed clients, to managing and building payment products that all clients used, with an extremely tough period in 2008 managing relationships with North American financial institutions – probably one of the toughest and most tiring periods of my career.

In 2016 I co-founded Form3 to take all that experience and learning to build a payments tech company to serve banks and financial institutions around the world.

What’s one thing you love about the City of London?

Progress – everywhere you go, there is a real sense of moving forward but, balanced with a real sense of understanding and valuing the past. I really love that you can see new skyscrapers wrapped around buildings from 800 years ago. I think that’s a really powerful combination. Constantly driving forward is what helps our financial services industry to stand out on the world stage. I’ve definitely felt that as we’ve expanded into Europe and North America.

And one thing you would change?

Positivity. It’s so easy to think about problems, but the City is diverse, capable, experienced and innovative and we need to be proud of that, positive about that and get on with it.

What’s been your most memorable business lunch or meeting?

I always remember a first meeting with the corporate treasurer of a massive global business – he looked me straight in the eyes and said, “I will listen to any ideas you have where you are top three in the world, anything else don’t bother”. That has always stuck with me, be confident BUT really really understand why you are using people’s time, and think about it from their perspective. It was a little intimidating 12 months out of university!

And any business faux pas?

During my first interview event for a graduate programme, I’d never seen an office coffee dispenser before, one of those with a lever on the top. I was first to arrive at the interview and faffing around with how to make it work. I just pushed this lever on the top as hard as I could and it sprayed coffee literally all over the table and floor! I guess it made an impression at least.

What’s been your proudest moment?

At work, hands down seeing Form3’s platform cross through 10bn payments processed in our 10th year. It was such a monumental step in our journey, made up of so many important and proud moments along the way – but seeing that all come together and to see the business flying at scale like that was really a proud moment for me.

And who do you look up to?

Tough one, I’ve met some many amazing leaders, and many humble and talented people – I really try and find the skills and approaches that I love and weave them together.

What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?

Find the best people to work for, and hire people who are better than you.

And the worst?

I was once told “your team is there to make you look good”. I actually think the exact opposite is true – you are there to make your team look good, then anything is possible.

Are you optimistic for the year ahead?

YES! The world is not slowing down, but look, I wouldn’t be CEO of a proud, UK-founded tech company pushing out internationally if I didn’t see the amazing opportunities ahead of us. Of course there are challenges, and some are pretty daunting – let’s go after them.

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

I don’t get a lot of time for lunches, so we’re more likely to grab a soup / sandwich from Birleys.

And if we’re grabbing a drink after work?

Brewdog (love a good pint).

Where’s home during the week?

Flat by Liverpool Street Station.

And where might we find you at the weekend?

North Norfolk Coast – I’ve lived out that way with my family for years and absolutely love it. Fresh air, dark skies and fantastic pubs!

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

A week with my wife and two kids, brain switched off in the sunshine (we love Croatia) and a week at home in Norfolk enjoying the space and taking on a woodworking project.