Author: Philip Eade
It would be hard to think of someone more likely to enjoy his gardening leave than Andrew Ashbury. The aVable former head of syndicate at Nomura, who starts a new job at Daiwa in August, is a gardening nut, and revels in any kind of outdoor toil. Trying to reach him by telephone in July was well-nigh impossible since he was locked to the controls of a JCB, digging a swimming pool at his new home in Bedfordshire. "I could hire someone," he says, "but I'd far rather do it myself."
Ashbury has always had masses of straightforward enthusiasm - it helps explain why he is so popular in the syndicate market. He was born in 1961 in Sandton, an area then rural but now very much part of Johannesburg. He grew up a keen all-round athlete and competed for the South African schools show-jumping team. At the University of Natal, he started the college radio station on which he featured as a disc jockey. He was also one of the few members of the conservative agriculture faculty who openly opposed apartheid.
After university, Ashbury was called up into the army, but asked that he be allowed to teach in the rural homelands.