Financial Times

Brian Tora has one of those voices that sounds familiar, this may be due to his generic recording voice or that I heard one of his reports on Radio 4. I caught up with him in Praia da Luz, where he spends a large part of the year, to talk about his long career in finance and broadcasting.

After leaving school aged 17, Brian worked on the floor of the Stock Exchange for three years before being promoted to managing portfolios for private clients.  In 1974 he switched to pure investment management, working for a merchant bank. Two further spells in investment companies followed, before returning to stockbroking.

His journey into journalism began in 1984 when he joined James Capel, which he describes as   “A brilliant firm,” One of his colleagues had worked for the BBC and suggested Brian had a broadcasting voice. He introduced him to the BBC which used him on a number of different broadcasts, including the business slot on Radio 4’s Today programme, Breakfast TV and GLR, the local radio station for London. Coincidentally he met the financial editor for LBC at about the same time and was soon providing regular commentary on markets for their breakfast show.  

James Capel had been taken over by HSBC in 1984 and a restructuring saw Brian, who was head of retail marketing at the time, leave to pursue other options. “My boss had told me I could always earn a living as a writer.” Fully expecting his brief career in broadcasting to come to an end, he was surprised to be asked by the BBC to continue his broadcasts as a freelance contributor. 

His talents were swiftly picked up by a rival firm, Greig Middleton, which he joined in 1991 as marketing director. Aware of the capricious nature of the financial services industry, he insisted that his freelance activities should continue under his new role, so he went on with his broadcasts, as well as writing regular articles in a variety of publications, including a weekly column in the Independent. In Fund Strategy he devised a column based on a spoof character, called e-trader, a un-PC fund manager who he eventually retired to the Algarve! 

In 2003 Greig Middleton, then called Gerrard, for which Brian had worked in various roles for more than twelve years, became part of Barclays Wealth. Brian was ill when the take-over went through and was unable to work for the first year of the new ownership. Despite being given the role of Investment Communications director, he decided to retire in 2006 at 61, rejuvenating his freelance activities and consultancies. 

As well as writing and broadcasting, he gained a reputation for chairing webinars and investment-related conferences with a wide range of high profile speakers. Indeed, he retained a significant presence in the city, though confesses to taking much more of a back seat these days.

Brian appeared regularly on key business programmes, including Channel 4 News, BBC Breakfast, Sky News, Bloomberg TV and radio and CNBC’s Squawk Box. 

His most dramatic recent experience was in 2008 after the collapse of Lehman brothers. “At the time I was chairing a conference in Dubai and it was considered such a catastrophic event that all the speakers were tearing up their notes.” Brian’s mettle was truly tested as he had to improvise on a daily basis.

While doing a segment on John Craven’s Newsround he met Nigel Cassidy, a business journalist with the BBC and Nigel then ran their breakfast show from the James Capel trading floor. Unfortunately, this coincided with the crash of ´87. “This was one of my worst moves as they wanted to interview traders but everyone was tearing their hair out and did not want to be interrupted for an interview.” 

Perhaps his biggest claim to fame is that he is featured on the BBCs back catalogue of broadcasting gaffs. He always used to end on the GLR breakfast show with an amusing story. In this instance, it was because the Foreign Office had made cuts and was no longer going to serve nibbles and drinks to journalists during press briefings. The newsreaders mistakenly announced that the Foreign Office had stopped serving cannabis to journalists! To which Brian retorted; “I think you will find that is canapes!” The newsreaders collapsed with laughter and could not continue for some minutes.

Brian has broadcast for BBC World TV from Praia da Luz and his last feature for the Today programme, back in 2015, was also broadcast live from his house, a home which he bought early in 2012. What are his plans for the future? “I started working in 1963 so would like to make it 60 years and keep writing until 2023 but, who knows!”