Banking veteran Entwistle becomes Bonhams chairman

Ray Entwistle
Ray Entwistle

Auctioneers Bonhams has announced that veteran banker Ray Entwistle is to replace Simon Miller as chairman of its Scottish operation.

“Ray has a longstanding interest in the arts and his reputation in the business and financial world will bring a great deal to our team,” said Bonhams Scotland managing director Miranda Leslie.

Entwistle, a former chairman of Edinburgh-based private bank Adam & Company, is also the founder of Scotland’s newest bank, Hampden and Co, which he established in 2015 and of which he continues to be Chairman.



Mr Entwistle said in a statement: “I’m honoured to have been asked to become Bonhams new chairman and to follow in Simon Miller’s very capable footsteps.

“I have enjoyed buying art at auction for many years and I am greatly looking forward to becoming more deeply involved in a world that has always been dear to my heart.”

Mr Leslie, managing director of Bonhams Scotland, added: “Scotland remains an important location for discovering objects to sell internationally as well as here at home and Ray’s global perspective will be a great resource on which to draw.”

Hampden & Co opened for business last summer five years after getting itself first in the queue for a banking licence in what was then the government’s new streamlined process.

By the time it opened its doors on Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square – it has a second office in Soho, London – it had raised nearly £50 million in capital from 250 shareholders.

It is the UK’s first new private bank in 30 years.

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