 He started in South Africa on the board of the Tollgate Group, to which he was appointed "largely as a favour to [his] father", then a senior partner at Tollgate's UK stockbroker Rowe and Pitman.Tollgate eventually failed in "one of the most torrid, unpleasant and seamy corporate chapters in South Africa’s history".He worked at Robert Fleming & Co in South Africa as director of their Corporate Finance department.