Quite a number of British investment bankers have arrived at their jobs via Eton, Oxford and an MBA. Simon Hirst, though, has taken the route in tandem. At almost every stage he has been accompanied by his identical twin Julian. The brothers' careers have since diverged - Simon recently left ABN Amro to become joint head of M&A at Commerzbank and Julian is head of the internet team at UBS Warburg. For over 30 years, though, one would have been hard pressed to tell them apart.
They were born in London in 1958, their father David being a barrister who went on to become chairman of the Bar and later, with a knighthood, a judge of the Court of Appeal. (The twins' older brother, Jonathan Hirst QC, has followed his father to the oYce of chairman of the Bar.) The twins were in the same house at Eton and then went to Keble College, Oxford. They both rowed in the college eight (Simon was captain) and both took Wrst class-degrees in geography.
In 1980, Simon Hirst started his Wrst job with Hambros as an associate in the corporate Wnance department; Julian went to Samuel Montagu.