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Jeremy Culverhouse on finance, film, and family

By Jeremy Culverhouse

Managing Director - WCF Advisory

Evocative of the eventful scripts of his film background, Jeremy Culverhouse’s story is like a captivating biopic beginning at boarding school in North London where an 18-year-old Jeremy excelled in sport and acting.

Opting for adventure over drama school, Jeremy travelled to Greece, before joining the North American department of a Lloyd’s of London brokerage firm – a 25-year stint during which he lived in Chicago for a short time. On his return to the UK, he switched from the City of London to Parliament to work on David Cameron’s Big Society and then became Chief of Staff to Lord Wei of Shoreditch.

Both career and personal circumstances led Jeremy to leave London and establish his own business, Winchester Corporate Finance (WCF) with co-founder Callum Scott. During this time, Jeremy and his wife also created Shoreditch Pictures, with their shared passion for all things film and television. Both ventures now enable him to fulfil his professional ambitions whilst spending time with his ultimate love – his family.

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Can you talk us through the alternative business finance solutions your company specialises in?

We are effectively a non-regulated broker of alternative finance solutions.

The market and lenders that we go to our alternative; we generally wouldn't deal with the high street banks. We're looking at alternative platforms like Funding Circle or iwoca. Some of the more unconventional types of lending are things like invoice financing (where a lender will lend against an owed invoice), or supply chain financing (where the lender will look at who you're supplying and advance you that money based on the credit worthiness of that purchaser).

Those are just a few of the products that we offer. To date, we’ve arranged something in the region of £70 million worth of loans.

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"We formed Shoreditch Pictures as a conduit to create content. Today Shoreditch Pictures has made about 35 short films. We've got various project concepts in with commissioning editors at Netflix and Channel Five."

What factors influence available finance?

At the business level factors include the track record of the company and the directors. A major macroeconomic factor is interest rates – Bank of England rates are going up and therefore, commercial rates will move northwards, but if people are happy to place assets as collateral, then the market is still competitive.

We find the decision-making with alternative platforms is much quicker. If you’re in a business that is time critical, then that fast turnaround can be very advantageous.

What’s your current assessment of the UK financial industry?

From a broking perspective, there’s quite a lot of competition. I’m not an economist, but I do follow key economists to get a feel for the UK economy and the effects it’s going to have on people looking to take out business loans.

There are definitely choppy waters ahead, I don’t think you need to be a great scientist to have worked that out, as inflation tears into companies’ profits and particularly leaves SMEs exposed.

Tell us about your work as an Executive Producer with Shoreditch Pictures.

My wife and I had always wanted to do something in the third sector. We’re both adopted and we’ve got a real love for Africa – I discovered that my mother had emigrated to South Africa and when Mandela was released from jail, I was able to fly to meet her for the first time, which was amazing.

In 2006 I collapsed with a burst colon, I had surgery, and in the end, I left the city as a result.

I looked after our two grand-children for a time so that my wife and eldest daughter could go to university together. My wife did a degree in film production at the University of Winchester and as part of the final year project we formed Shoreditch Pictures as a conduit to create content.

Today Shoreditch Pictures has made about 35 short films. We did a feature-length musical drama set in 1943, which has been seen by Working Title and Netflix. This will shortly be available to view on Apple TV and other streaming services. We’ve got various project concepts in with commissioning editors at Netflix and Channel Five.

I even made a film a couple of years ago called The Passenger which featured a member of the Old Bond Store!

"There are definitely choppy waters ahead, I don't think you need to be a great scientist to have worked that out, as inflation tears into companies’ profits and particularly leaves SMEs exposed."

Jeremy Culverhouse - Managing Director, WCF Advisory

What do you love to watch?

I love stories that have some kind of redemptive qualities of good winning over evil.

One of my favourite films is Schindler’s List – that final scene where Liam Neeson takes his ring off gets me every time. Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, about WWII hero Desmond Doss who saved 75 men at the Battle of Okinawa without ever firing a weapon is also an amazing film.

I’m incredibly inspired by watching people like Ben Wicks (a young Director and fellow shareholder at Shoreditch Pictures) who is so talented – at 29 he has just had his first breakthrough Channel 4 directing role.

Who or what is your greatest love?

I’m 60 next year. I’ve just recovered from prostate cancer. I’ve had a hell of a 12 months getting through that and I now feel young and energised.

When you’re diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, you start to think just the worst thoughts.

I can tell you with absolutely no qualms that the thing that got me through it, because they are the love of my life, are my wife, my five children, and my two grandchildren.