I still have the slide. At each quarterly update I include it: a photo of me all on my own, in a serviced office, with really good posture and no grey hair. It always prompts reminiscing about the early days, but it captures exactly how Langham Hall in Guernsey began: one person and a great deal to build and prove. And it certainly prompts discussion about how far we have come – 10 years later with an incredible team of over 80 staff, amazing clients and a great new office space, which reflects the quality of the business we have built.

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I came from a funds and M&A background but was new to providing fund administration as a service. The infrastructure and standards were there to follow, yet we needed to earn trust, relationship by relationship, mandate by mandate. Winning those first clients was tough and demanded persistence. From the outset my mantra was simple: our best form of ‘business development’ is to deliver an exceptional, hands-on client service.

Building something together

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In the serviced office days we grew one chair at a time – first just me, then two of us at a hot desk, then five of us squeezed into a meeting room… When we finally moved into our own space, the fit-out crew accidentally dropped the boardroom glass into the street. For the first month our meeting room had no glass at all. One of our early joiners still laughs about her interview in the ‘open-plan boardroom’. Full transparency in how we do things, quite literally.

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Those beginnings shaped our culture. People showed initiative, worked diligently and learned quickly. The Langham Hall apprenticeship model provided real opportunities, with mentorship and training as part of everyday work. Seeing colleagues who joined as juniors now leading teams is a source of real pride and motivation to keep doing what we are doing.

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That sense of ownership showed up in an unusual way. For a business built on precision in supporting other people’s numbers, the number that mattered most early on was your employee number. “Number three.” “Number four.” “Number seventeen.” We didn’t give people numbers, they just knew and wore them with pride. They still surface in conversations now – a reminder of the sleeves-rolled-up teamwork that built the office and still drives it today.

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Toni Riley is a good example. She joined as a junior administrator, understood what needed attention before anyone asked and made the business tick in its formative years. Today she heads operations. That kind of continuity, growing with the firm and developing leadership skills while keeping the same care and work ethic, is rare. That culture of accountability and collaboration remains one of our greatest strengths.

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Maintaining that culture and boutique approach has remained a focus throughout. We understand the difficulties of keeping that one-team, collaborative feeling within a scaling business. And this is something we talk about at almost all of our senior management meetings, constantly challenging each other as to how we continue to evolve and innovate to ensure that culture is protected.

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People and trust

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If you ask our clients why they choose and stay with us, they tend to talk about people and trust.

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A few years in, a client managing partner visited our office and spoke to the whole floor – graduates and seniors alike – about his firm’s experience. Other providers, he said, offered a cookie-cutter approach. We were different: people-led, immersed in the detail and trusted from the very first meeting. Most importantly, we had delivered exactly what we said we would in the pitch process.

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The most powerful moment came afterwards when a junior said, “That’s why I joined Langham Hall too.” When a client mirrors your promises back to your newest colleagues, you know you are on the right track.

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Our clients work with us as an extension of their team. It is more engaging for our people and more effective for their funds. That partnership mindset is deliberate: we do not simply administer structures; we help managers navigate complexity with confidence, deliver clear reporting and provide proactive oversight and leadership. That trust, built on delivering on our promises, is the foundation of our growth.

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Milestones — big and small

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There have been headline-grabbing client moments – major fund closes and transactions that made the news. Those client success stories are satisfying because the impact of our work is tangible: transactions project managed, reporting aligned across jurisdictions, and complex closings handled with precision under tight deadlines. You can point to the headline and say, “We helped make that happen.”

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But the quieter milestones matter just as much: the two office moves that came quicker than expected as a result of the growth; the first time an adviser said, unprompted, “You are the ones we want to work with”; watching early clients grow from first-time managers into multi-fund platforms and knowing our team were part of that journey with them; the promotions that recognised excellence and embodied our values.

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Looking ahead

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Fundraising is becoming more challenging. Regulation grows more complex. Expectations continue to rise. All of this reinforces our conviction in a hands-on model led by accessible senior experts and supported by robust systems. Our role is to turn complexity into clarity and to deliver, consistently.

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At the same time, we know success and reputation bring a different challenge: never becoming complacent. We have retained our small-business mentality – partner-led, owner-run and relentlessly accountable. We began with a proven group model but reshaped it for the Guernsey market. That drive to improve and adapt, to tailor our service to client needs as they evolve and to keep doing things better is part of Langham Hall’s DNA. It is how you scale without losing the qualities that made you trusted in the first place.

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We will continue doing what works: staying close to clients, investing in our people and building capacity with care. Every client receives the same standard of service, regardless of size. That is non-negotiable. Our new office is already filling up fast, which says a great deal about momentum.

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Ten years on from that solitary desk, the slide still makes me smile. Not out of nostalgia, but because it captures a truth that has not changed: if you do a really good job – consistently, quietly, together – everything else will fall into place.