When John Studzinski, Studs to his friends, left Morgan Stanley after 23 years with the firm, a lot of people thought he would retire to devote time to his many other interests in and around London, such as his sponsorship of the arts, notably opera, and his support of the homeless. There are other interests too - he breeds pedigree dogs and spent the weekend before meeting Euromoney assisting with the delivery of eight male puppies.
Not many bankers can claim to spend their free time sponsoring the premieres of chamber works by new young composers through his own Genesis Opera Project, as he did at the Almeida Theatre in Islington in the summer, receiving honours from the pope for his work with the homeless, or helping out in soup kitchens at the weekend. But that is part of his reason for being. "The purpose of a banker is to reinvest in society and recirculate wealth," he explains. "All material possessions are only lent to us, after all." Studzinski is a man with many other worthy causes to pursue; a new job and stiff challenge to build out the investment banking business at HSBC didn't seem to be one of them.