profile
Neil Cotter
The Route to Treasury
With the internet gaming companies fully settled in Gibraltar the companies, as well as employing many local folks, bring with them people with specialist knowledge who really embrace the lifestyle. One such person is the newly promoted Treasurer of Partygaming, Neil Cotter. Sounds like a Chancellor only without the politics to muddy the water? I put a few questions to Neil to find out more about the role and the man, and to discover how he ended up in Gibraltar. “The nature of my specialist role means Neil, who was born and raised in Liverpool, that 80% of treasury jobs are in London and still has many relatives and friends there and that is where I used to live. Travel took up a tries visit at least twice a year. “It’s great that huge part of my life so I was keen to improve my work/life balance,” Neil explains. “I had played some poker on line and had an interest in the internet as a business tool. A friend mentioned he had seen my current role advertised so it really was an excellent fit all round. My wife, Linda, was a little reticent to totally up sticks at first, and as you may recall it was very difficult to rent property in 2005. I stayed in Gibraltar on my own for the first 12 months but the following year we bought our home in Gibraltar and my wife and three children joined me in July 2006.”
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Accounting generally records what has happened but ‘treasury’ is looking forward in time and helps manage financial risk and future funding
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there is a direct flight to Manchester from Gibraltar,” he says. He was educated at the Liverpool Institute which he describes as a huge Victorian building in the shadow of the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. “The school has a Beatles connection — Paul McCartney was an old boy (known affectionately as Big Mac),” he explains. The Liverpool Institute was converted into the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) in the 1980s and thrives today under the auspices of Sir Paul (www.lipa.ac.uk). “Strangely enough, Paul McCartney revisited the school while I was in the 6th form — when he was in Wings — so we had a chance to meet him and he even played a concert for all the pupils. He gave some free concerts to help save
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • MAY 2010