Meet our Board – Steve Hughes – Five Wealth

At pro-manchester, we take great pride in being an organization driven by our valued members. Our board and committees consist entirely of member firms, and we are thrilled to introduce you to some of the exceptional individuals who contribute to making pro-manchester the remarkable organisation it is today.

1. Introduce yourself

Hello, I’m Steve. I’m one of the founders and directors of Five Wealth Ltd, an independent wealth management firm in Manchester. I’m a Chartered Financial Planner and Fellow of the Personal Finance Society (PFS). More importantly, I’ve been learning through advising individuals and businesses for the last twenty years. I’m also an Education Champion for the PFS, which essentially means I go into schools and teach children about personal finances.

I’m from Manchester (a red), studied philosophy at university in Birmingham and have always been fascinated by the world of business and investing. I’m very fortunate to do something I enjoy and am still fascinated by.

I’m a dad and home life typically revolves around my son and his social life! I love being outdoors so like to run, walk, crawl, cycle in the countryside when I’ve free time. For fun (I appreciate it’s a subjective term) I’ll do triathlons or ultramarathons each year.

2. Career highlight

Starting Five Wealth in 2016. The highlight was the unwavering loyalty and support of clients and colleagues who wanted to follow us into the unknown. It was a really humbling experience.

3. Name three words that describe your personality

Selfless, resilient, determined.

4. Why did you decide that you wanted to be part of the pro-manchester board

I’m a proud Mancunian and this fantastic city has given me so much already. I wanted to give back and help shape an organisation that already does so much to develop people and business growth in Greater Manchester.

5. What’s the best thing about pro-manchester

It’s a really positive and inclusive community. The events programme is also so good. The breadth and quality of events gives options for everybody to get value from the content and meet like-minded people.

6. What more would you like to see from pro-manchester this year.

Helping members to support and collaborate with each other even more. Collectively, the membership has real power to drive business growth but also effect positives changes.

7. What are your priorities for 2024

• Continuing to build the legacy by growing Five Wealth, helping more clients and improving our business. We’ve recently entered a new phase in our journey so it’s an exciting time.
• Being the best dad I can be for my little boy.
• Giving back. I deliver financial education workshops in schools amongst other things. We don’t tend to leave school with many life skills and I’d like to help young people become better equipped to make good financial decisions when they leave academia.
• Staying healthy, happy and grateful. I had a whole year recently where I could not really get out or do exercise due to injury. It was a very trivial issue in the grand scheme of things, but it served as a useful reminder to be grateful for everything else and to savour any time I can get out and do things in future. In 2024, I’m looking to make up by doing a 100 mile run in April.

8. What do you think are the most important things going on in Manchester at the moment?

It’s an exciting time to be in this city. We’ve had a dynamic, growing economy and it’s brilliant to see Manchester now becoming the base of choice for some really big names. From here, I think it’s important we are ambitious and innovative in our thinking. We’ve a thriving tech sector, but we want the success stories coming out of that ecosystem to stay and choose to grow into big companies here – creating future opportunities and a lasting impact in this region. Manchester requires a world-class integrated transport network to ensure sustainable economic growth and there’s work to be done here. Finally, businesses are becoming more aware of sustainability and ESG considerations. It would be great to see our local business community really drive action and progress in this area.

9. Favourite quote or saying

Life
“Be the change that you want to see in the world.” (Ghandi)

“Just do and be your best. Don’t worry about anything else”. (A Hughes… my mum!)

Investing
“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” (Warren Buffett)

10. Favourite meeting place in Manchester

When we were in the old financial district, King Street Townhouse. Near our current home in ABC Building, it has to be Dishoom – with dice!