Richard Foulkes

The President and Fellows were saddened to hear that Richard had passed away on 21 October 2023. He had been a strong and generous supporter of the College for many years, an active member of Queens’ Investment Committee from 1997 and became a Fellow Commoner in 2010. His philanthropy to Queens’ reflected his all-round involvement since becoming an undergraduate.

Richard Foulkes was born in 1945 in Portsmouth, son of Mary, a Girtonian (nee McCallum), and John Foulkes, a consultant surgeon before the family moved to Hastings.  He won an academic scholarship to Lancing College where he first showed his mathematical aptitude and enjoyed many sports including Eton Fives. His fluency in French came from his gap year at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

He arrived at Queens’ to read mathematics Part 1 before switching to Economics Part 11. He was a strong sportsman, excelling at Eton Fives and gaining a half blue, as well as captaining the college Table Tennis team and becoming a member of the Hawks Club. He joined J Henry Schroder Wagg as an investment analyst on graduation in 1968.

His first role as an international fund manager in his 37-year career with Schroders was being sent to Beirut in 1975 to establish a joint venture with the Asseily family. It was a volatile time in Lebanon and shortly after arriving in the country Civil War broke out forcing Richard and his first wife and new-born son to flee from the fighting in a rapid and hazardous exit.

This fleeting taste of investing outside the UK, a spell in the research department focussing on Europe and a number of European secondments all stood him in good stead to be a founder member of Schroders Capital Investment Management (SCMI) in 1979. This new team had been established to manage non-US international assets for US institutional clients. Richard was a pioneer in global investing in equities: now mainstream, but then very forward thinking at a time when most investment was domestic. 

He became a regular pundit on a US TV business channel; answering questions live on a phone-in investment program. What better epithet is there than that expressed by the Los Angeles Times in 1997 “World Beater: How Foulkes Uses Growth Investor’s Tools to Extraordinary Effect”. Americans loved him and frequently described him as a renaissance man when his life-long love of opera emerged. 

The presentation of the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 1993 was a highlight. SCMI was the first investment management company to receive this award and Richard could justifiably claim the lion’s share of the credit for this, through being there from the start, winning much of the business and achieving excellent investment performance.

The success of SCMI in the 1980s and 1990s powered much of Schroder’s growth and made it into the global business it is today.  By the time that Richard retired in 2005, he had served as Chief Investment Officer and left as Vice Chairman of SCMI.

He had married Rosemary Dorman in 1973 after they had met as flatmates. Their two sons Alexander and Edward were left without their mother when she died suddenly of viral myocarditis in 1977. This was a terrible blow but to his credit Foulkes managed with the help of devoted nanny, Judy Waldie, to raise his sons. Alexander is a consultant neurologist in West Hertfordshire and at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square.  Edward is a GP in Sevenoaks, and between them they have six children.

Richard had first met Celia Richards in 1969 and renewed their friendship in 1998. They married in 2005 shortly after he retired and moved from Roehampton to Hambleton, Rutland.

Even in retirement, his investment expertise continued to be put to good use in a number of entrepreneurial and charitable situations. He became a governor of Oakham School and was Chairman of the Investment Committee of St John Ambulance, subsequently being awarded the Order of St John. He continued to pursue his lifelong love of music; especially opera, and golf, horseracing and skiing remained strong passions.

As his sons, Alexander and Edward, said at his funeral, “He was a force, an incredible force of life and positivity, always making the best of things whatever life threw at him, even through deep tragedy, and by the same token he always found the best in other people. He was a wonderful, kind, generous and gentle human being; a friend and mentor to many; and an adorable, dependable father and granddad.”