John Dobbs Email and Phone Number

A chance meeting in Geneva, led to an offer of a position with Stewart and Robertson as a Senior Portfolio Adviser. By this time, I was very much an avid collector of whiskies, and the chance to combine my passion with a career was too good not to turn down. At present, I am responsible for development of the North American and Canadian markets which geopgraphically speaking,is the fastest growing market sector. My daily duties include brokering sales of casks and individual bottles with both HNWI and Sophisticated investors while also opening the corridors of communication with Family Offices and alternative investment companies who can offer their own clients the chance to work with us.

Feeling I had come as far as possible with Spectrum,one of my clients asked me to join Orotal Commodities on an initial three month contract. I ended up staying with the company nearly three years,commuting back to Barcelona at weekends. Effectively, I utilised the skills descibed below during my time at BGC Partners whilst also trading with Spanish investors, particularly in the agricultural futures market having picked up the Spanish language quickly while working and living in Barcelona

After getting married to a Catalan woman and starting a family, we decided to relocate to her hometown of Barcelona where I gained new employment as an IFA with The Spectrum Group. Already having a firm grasp of the stock market it was intersting to transfer my skills to an interpersonal level, advising clients on a face to face basis on subjects like tax efficent investing inpensions and retirement planning, estate and succession planning and life assurance and mortgages. My job took me all around Europe, advising the British expatraite community on their futures. During this time I built some extremely solid business relationships which saw me begin to invest in the luxury good markets, and in particular whisky.

With BGC´s breakaway from Cantor Fitzgerald in 2005, I was headhunted by BGC to join their new soft commodities division, applying my skills to a new career in Commodity Trading. I quickly grasped the analytical skills necessary to thrive in a high pressurised envirionment quickly gaining the respect of my peers. I was able to watch stock market movements in the agriculture industry and conduct research on the supply and demand of commodities like grain,fruit vegetables and in some instances livestock. My duties also included tracking performance at domestic and international scales, analyzing reports about the agriculture market and developing strategies for investment for clients while maintaining professional relationships. In one year I was promoted to Desk Head, where I was responsible for building business contacts and developing revenue streams while analysing and forecasting commodity market trends and advising clients on opportunities.

Spread Betting specialist trading short term opportunities, utlising leverage and hedging risk. In paryicular, I specialised in accessing out of hours trading and trading bear markets (going short)

My first sales position saw me secure a place as a Network and PC Support Recruitment Specialist. My role was to secure contract work placement for the creme de la creme of the PC and Network world. I would secure contract work for IT specilaists which would range from Helpdesk to Third Line Netwotk Support. My daily duties would include speaking to Support Managers within the London region, selling CV´s to these managers and winning roles for Newtork Specialists who had a commitment to contract work on behalf of Progressive. In my first 18 months, I had over 50 contract workers on my books. This led me to being promoted to the role of Telecoms Contract Recruiter. Within this role, I won Progressive a contract with Cap Gemini Outsourcing team, which led to hundreds of Telecoms positions being filled in both contract and permanent recruitment for the company. The IT contract world during this time was probably the most dynanmic sales field that to this day I have personally covered.