Garret Graham Wellesley, 8th Earl of Cowley (born 30 March 1965), styled Viscount Dangan from 1975 to 2016, is a British hereditary peer and businessman. Previously an entrepreneur in derivatives and foreign exchange trading, he is the founder and CEO of UK alternative lender Wellesley & Co.
Wellesley’s financial career began in 1985 as a derivatives trader at the London stockbroking firm Hoare Govett, from where he moved to two further derivatives trading roles at Banque Indosuez and ING Charterhouse.[3] In 1992, he became head of foreign exchange trading at global metals trader Gerald Metals.[3]
In 1995, he established the UK foreign exchange market maker IFX, which specialised in contracts for difference (CFDs) and spread bets on equity prices.[2] In 1999, he and another director, Lorenzo Naldini, purchased the 51% of the business owned by its US parent company IFX Corp in a buyout that left them as sole shareholders.[4]
In 2000, IFX was bought by the football pools operator Zetters for £20.4million in a reverse takeover, forming a new entity – IFX Group – with Wellesley as group chief executive.[citation needed] Two years later the company sold its pools business.[5]
In 2003, Wellesley and Naldini left IFX following a disagreement with the board and co-founded ODL Securities, an online foreign exchange and derivatives broker.[6]
In 2005, ODL was the whistleblower in an attempted banking fraud by US hedge fund Bayou. Bayou opened an account with ODL, depositing $101million and requesting two transactions that were refused by the management, who notified the UK Financial Services Authority.[7]
In 2010, Wellesley and Naldini sold their 50% stake in ODL to US foreign exchange firm FXCM Holdings, creating a business employing around 1,000 staff.[8] In December that year, the newly enlarged entity floated on the New York Stock Exchange.[9]
In 2013, Graham Wellesley co-founded alternative lender Wellesley & Co. with three other shareholders, taking the role of chief executive.[10] The following year the company issued what at the time was the largest ever loan by a peer-to-peer lender – a £8.3million bridging loan to a UK urban regeneration scheme.[11] In September 2020 the company engaged Duff & Phelps to draw up a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) to try to avoid what they described as a "disorderly wind-down and likely insolvency which would result in an inferior outcome for all investors". If the CVA is agreed by the creditors, unsecured bondholders may get 1p per £1 invested whilst secured investors may get up to 84p per £1; if not the firm will go into administration.[12][13]
Related to the collapse of Wellesley & Co, in April 2024 Graham Wellesley lost a High Court battle about a loan secured against Chalet Valentine, their six-bedroom, five-bathroom property on the Mont d’Arbois in France, close to the Swiss border. [14]
Personal life
In 1990, Wellesley married Claire L. Brighton. The couple have two sons and a daughter:[1]
Henry Arthur Peter Wellesley, Viscount Dangan (born 3 December 1991)
Lady Natasha Rose Wellesley (born 28 June 1994)
Hon. Bertram Garret Graham Bertie Wellesley (born 12 April 1999)
1 2 3 4 Coppock, John (22 August 2002). "IFX Chief plays against odds: Nobleman Wellesley focuses on tax-free financial speculation". Wall Street Journal.
↑ "IFX applies to join LME". Metal Bulletin. 15 July 1999.
↑ Chisholm, Jamie (31 May 2002). "Zetters bets on transformation". Financial Times.
Italics in entries mean the peer also holds a previously listed earldom of higher precedence
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