Luke Ellis

Doctor of Laws

Tuesday 15 July 2025 - Orator: Richard Davies

Listen to the full oration and honorary speech on SoundCloud.

Vice-Chancellor, 

Luke Ellis has had one of the most impactful careers in UK finance of his generation.  

A career in which he helped shape the financial industry, leading, and saving, one of the UK’s most important firms—a jewel in London’s crown.  

And one which has allowed him to become engaged in philanthropy and charitable causes, making a huge difference to the lives of disadvantaged children. 

All this started, it seems, when making bets for fun with his grandfather. He mastered the card game whist at 3, and when he was just 5 or 6 became interested in the odds in horse races.   

The young Luke spotted a pattern. This would become a theme. Whichever horse won, the bookies would pay out less then they took in. The house always wins, in other words. This ability to spot patterns, and interest in numbers, meant that it was perhaps natural that he decided to study mathematics.  

But a year or so after arriving in Bristol, pure mathematics had taken an esoteric turn.  So, he added economics. Luke became fascinated in macroeconomics, which he saw as an imperfect science, one in which behaviour, history and, again, pattern recognition were important. 

Now Maths and Economics sounds quite heavy, but student life was fun too. Luke was an active sportsman, running the ski club. And he played cricket. The summer of 1985 was a good one: Australia visited England with the hosts recovering the Ashes, with incredible batting from Mike Gatting and David Gower. Luke played a lot that summer too: in the final 45 days before finishing his degree he played in 40 games. He would play for the firsts, seconds, anyone that had a game! 

Talking to Luke last week, it is clear that he remembers his time here fondly. Arriving in the City, Luke worked for investment banks and in particular at JP Morgan, where he built the equity derivatives business for them. The availability of these new contracts, which allowed investors to take a view on an asset—to take risk, or to hedge against it—were changing London.  Derivatives went on to be a huge success, and Luke was part of this innovative new breed of financiers.  

Along with a former colleague, he then set up FRM, a fund of funds. He was able to sell his stake and to retire in 2007 at age 44. 

Vice Chancellor, we have a pattern here. Albeit a rare one. Because sometimes economists do this. David Ricardo, a founding father of economics was also a trader, and he famously retired at 41. To be 3 years behind David Ricardo in anything is a great achievement! 

The financial crisis was definitional in Britain, and was for Luke too. There was flux, and opportunities.  Luke was asked to return to the City, advising friends at first during the market gyrations. Then a big opportunity came at MAN group, a trading house with a storied history, going back 250 years. It had recently merged with GLG, and the pairing was not happy, at first.  

I remember the time—MAN group was thought to be in existential crisis. Luke returned, and led the turnaround. The company notably employs some of the best mathematicians in the country. He employed maths PhDs and a Fields Medallist. Luke steadied the ship. Assets under management doubled under his stewardship.  

But Luke was clear that the first two phases of his career put him in a position where his life, and his family’s, were funded.  

So, while there were financial rewards at MAN group, Luke, together with his wife Jenny, had decided that his salary should be put to work. To use leverage—the magnifying effect in finance—to have a greater impact.  

They set up the Mahoro Charitable Trust in 2013 and have since given millions of pounds to a wide range of causes, particularly focussing on charities supporting disadvantaged children and young people. 

This includes IntoUniversity, a charity which broadens access to university education. The first of these was set up in East Bristol.  

And it includes Greenhouse Sports. Since 2019 Luke has been Chair of the Trustees of this charity, which delivers intensive sports coaching and mentoring to help develop young people from disadvantaged communities. The cohorts are up to 150, creating leverage—the magnifying effect again—in Luke’s philanthropy.  

We know, sadly, that too many young people’s live can follow a similar, negative, pattern.  

But Luke and Jenny’s projects help young people avoid gangs, understand discipline, the importance of being there for teammates, and mentoring. 

In doing so, their charitable work shows how if we can spot a pattern in life, just as we do in economics, we can change it for the better. 

Vice-Chancellor, I present to you Luke Ellis as eminently worthy of the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa.