The Times, 15 October 2009
By Martin Waller
Hanson is hands on again
Robert Hanson, son of the late industrialist, Lord Hanson, is back in the City. Last month he quit Hanson Westhouse, one of the family firms, which was being merged with SocGen, amid talk that he was to take up a role in the Square Mile. Now he has been appointed chairman of Strand Partners, a boutique bank that advises on stock market flotations and M&A work. The Hanson name is disappearing from his old firm and he has sold his shares but his new employer will be renamed Strand Hanson and he will buy a stake.
Hanson, 49, is perhaps as well known for his appearance in gossip columns next to various Taras and Sophies as for his work in finance. His office tells me he has been hired because of his experience in emerging markets - he did a long stint for Rothschilds in Asia.
Strand wants to bring companies from overseas to London, having been taken on by a Kurdistan petroleum company and a Kalahari minerals concern. Hanson continues to run the private family business, including the Hanson Transport Group, founded by his great-great-grand-_ mother in 1850 and still "alive and well in Huddersfield", I am told. I didn't say a word.
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