Allan Saldanha

Before he joined City, Allan Saldanha (Class of 1995) was already well known as the youngest-ever champion at 10 on the TV puzzle show Countdown. He went on to be the youngest-ever British Scrabble Champion too before beginning a successful 25-year career (so far) in the City. Allan is now an advocate for philanthropy and donates 75 per cent of his own income to charity.

You had already been the youngest-ever champion on Countdown by the time you came to City. Were you also an academic prodigy?

Definitely not! I was very good at mental arithmetic, so for all the time that maths was just about that, I was top of the class in maths. But it didn’t really help in other subjects. And when algebra came into the picture, I slid down the class in maths as well! One or two teachers did expect me to be top of the pops because of  Countdown. Which was a bit unfair. One Latin teacher wrote on my report that I was quite good but ‘not as distinguished as I would have expected.’ Which didn’t seem a very sensible thing to write on someone’s report.

So there was some pressure, some expectation, but it wore off… My schoolmates realised that being good at mental arithmetic and anagrams didn’t translate. Once my school friends and teachers understood I wasn’t an actual world beater, everything settled down a bit!

It was only later on when I started doing economics that I was really good at something again!

Allan on Countdown wearing a CS tie!

How did you come to be at CLS?

I applied to CLS and Dulwich and I liked CLS more – I got a half scholarship. When we came to see the school, it was very friendly. I think it was quite a mix of nationalities, which you maybe didn’t get so much of at other independent schools. I think it’s a good thing for a school.

Did you enjoy your time at school?

I certainly did. There were lots of great teachers that I remember very fondly. CLS did push you to perform better academically, to get the most out of yourself. Jim Allman, my form tutor, ran the Maths Challenge, which I really enjoyed. He was a reasonably hard taskmaster but if you were struggling, he was there for you too. He was a very good form tutor. My economics teachers were brilliant: Neil McMillan and Frederick Chute, who has now sadly passed away.

I changed A-Levels – I had done a term of Physics and I was doing okay at it but I was also doing Economics AS which I was enjoying much more. My Physics and Economics teachers both advised me against changing but I loved Economics so much, I went against their advice.

I had only been thinking of studying Law at degree level but Mr McMillan suggested I think of Economics at Oxbridge – that gave me a boost and a new direction and I got into Cambridge.

I am still in touch with Peter Allwright because we both go to the Times Cryptic Crossword Championship every year, so I see him there. I’ve not finished above eighth there -there’s one chap who has won it ten out of the last 11 years who is streets ahead.

You were the youngest-ever national Scrabble champion when you were 15, weren’t you? Do you still play?

No, only occasionally with my kids. I gave it up in my early 20s because I wasn’t enjoying learning the words. Unless you have a really good memory (and I didn’t), you have to work very hard at it. Cricket was my first love, so I decided to drop Scrabble in the end. I love words and I still do cryptic crosswords –you get to enjoy the beauty of wordplay but it’s not possible to revise so you don’t need to work hard at it.

So Scrabble and Countdown involved a lot of unseen work?

Yes, a lot. I had the ambition but needed my parents to push me a bit to achieve my ambition. My mum would read the dictionary a

nd make lists of useful words for me to learn. Eventually, people started to produce word lists digitally. But, in my case, it was more of a cottage industry: the first time I went on Countdown my mum had read the whole dictionary and made lists for me. If I had done it when I was older, I would have had more fear. You just have that confidence as a youngster. I expected to do well on Countdown because I would always beat the contestants when I played along at home.

Were Countdown and the Scrabble competitions actually enjoyable for you?

I certainly enjoyed Countdown. And I enjoyed the competition of playing Scrabble, although the tournaments could be quite draining. Eight games a day. It was mainly the preparation I didn’t enjoy. I always wondered why people would ever give it up but when I was 21 and I had started work and I had less time, I realised that you needed your hobbies to be things you really enjoy and you didn’t want to be spending your spare time learning lists of words.

What other extra-curricular activities did you do at school?

Scrabble meant I didn’t play as much cricket as I should have which is something I regret. I opted out of cricket for a bit and when I came back it was more difficult to get into the team. I wasn’t quite a First XI player. We played maybe four games a season in the age-group Second XI as I went up through the school. I was a very slow seam bowler – I got a lot of swing and I could bat decently. Being from an Indian background, I saw myself as a much slower version of [legendary World Cup-winning captain] Kapil Dev! I started off as a batsman but I turned up late for my first game and, as a result, I was

put down to bat at No 11 instead of No 4. I never fully recovered my position! My time-keeping has improved now.

I did end up playing cricket a lot for the Old Citizens after University, which I loved. I played every weekend for them. I was team secretary for a while; I was completely involved for maybe ten years until my children were born.

What was your first experience of work?

My dad had a business, supplying seafood to restaurants, so he’d take me out on deliveries when I was a young boy and I learned about how to handle customers. Then after I learned to drive and he was out of action after a knee operation, I would do the deliveries.

When was the first time it occurred to you to go into Finance and Hedge Funds as a career?

I guess it was only at University when people started applying for internships at banks and fund managers and I thought, ‘I want to do that.’ Trading appealed to me but I realised you had to be quite aggressive and able to make split second decisions under pressure – or then there’s the Derivatives side where you need to be very strong at mathematics and often requires masters degrees. So neither side of that actually fitted me. But fund management, which is more analytical, was where I ended up, where I could take more time over researching and making investment decisions.

How would you describe your current job?

I was a fund manager for 14 years and then got made redundant. My firm F&C was downsizing, so I had a bit of a career change, really. I had to broaden my job search. I did risk management exams and some headhunters suggested internal audit to me and that’s been the second half of my career.

Can you explain internal audit in simple terms?

It is internally testing an investment bank’s processes and controls to make sure the controls are able to mitigate risks in line with the bank’s risk appetite.

There is some element of statistical analysis but in general it’s about the controls within a business and whether they are designed and operating properly. An example would be hard block controls in trading systems to prevent orders above a certain size being executed (and stop fat finger errors). The hard blocks should be designed correctly (e.g. thresholds set at the right levels) and operate effectively (stop orders going to market above the specified threshold).

What parts of the job do you enjoy?

It is analytical, which I enjoy, but there’s also a people side of things – when you have found a concern and you need to raise an issue, when you have to give bad news to your senior auditees, you need to handle it in the right way. It’s challenging. You need to gain the respect of the people you’re dealing with.

You donate 75 per cent of your earnings to charity – can you describe how and why that came about?

From going to India for family holidays I realised there was a degree of absolute poverty much greater than in the UK. I always knew I wanted to give to charities focused on the developing world. I would give £40 a month to CAFOD and my employer matched it. I was giving a total of maybe £1000 a year but I knew I should be giving a lot more.

When I was out of work in 2014, I made a donation to the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) after seeing a donation matching appeal– and was then contacted by somewhat from the Giving What We Can organisation who suggested I consider taking their 10% pledge, where you give 10 per cent of your income to charities you consider to be the most effective in improving lives. There is also a trial pledge available for those who wish to try it out.

They sent me research by a leading charity evaluator Givewell (a leading independent charity evaluator) that estimates the cost of saving a child’s life is under £4000 if you donate to their top rated charities like AMF. That was a game-changing figure for me. I have kids and their lives are priceless to me. If I could donate £4000 to save another dad going through the experience of losing his child I couldn’t think of any good reasons not to take this pledge.

I had a decent amount of savings from working for 14 years. I wasn’t the best paid fund manager but even so it is a well-paid sector. So when I got back into work I pledged to donate 20 per cent. Then I met more people within the effective altruism community and got more confidence in it and started to donate to other areas – the suffering of farmed animals, for one. And again looking at research on the most effective charities.

There are 10,000 of us now who have taken the 10% pledge. There were 400 of us when I took it in 2014. So it’s grown considerably. There’s a large inflow of new members among students, which is admirable – seeing youngsters pledging at an early stage without having savings has inspired me to give more and five years ago I decided to pledge 75 per cent of my income.

Was that a big decision? Did you wrangle with it?

It grew gradually – 20 per cent, then 30, 40, 50…As a family, we have financial security and we are not that materialistic. We live in a nice house and enjoy treats like eating out once a week but don’t spend in line with our income. We have one second hand car and don’t go on too expensive holidays. So that gives us a buffer. I’m not jeopardising my children’s financial security by taking the pledge.

Do you feel you are swimming against the tide in a sector that can maybe be characterised as having a very acquisitive and competitive culture?

Very much. But there is a UK Effective Altruism Finance group with maybe 100 members from across the financial sector. So, I am not entirely alone! And it’s always nice to meet up with them.

Is there a religious motivation behind it for you?

I am Catholic but I wouldn’t say that’s the key driver. I have changed my giving a little. Researchers in the effective altruism community were thinking about pandemics and the risks of advanced AI before Covid happened. Some experts believe that the risk of out-of-control AI, pandemics and bioterrorism amount to a one in six chance of complete human extinction in the next 100 years. Climate change is bad but it doesn’t lead to complete extinction, so worryingly it is actually outflanked by these other threats. So, enormous as the scale of poverty is, there are other huge threats to the future that I am concerned about.

What personal qualities would stand a 16-year-old in good stead, going into the workplace?

Emotional intelligence is still underrated, I think. It maybe came to me a bit later in my career. It wasn’t so important, maybe, in fund management, but in a lot of careers it is really central. Certainly, in my current career in internal audit where you often have to be telling people bad news- negotiating and agreeing issues with them that will reduce their bonuses. It is important to be able to deal with people in an individual way, taking into account different personality types. Empathy. You need to put yourself in other people’s shoes. There are ways of doing things. Not just raising negative issues but placing them in the context of what’s been going right.

How do you think the school shaped you? How would it have been different for you if you hadn’t gone there?

It was a wonderful experience. It gave me a confidence and left me well equipped for University and my career. I am still in touch with so many people from school. There are 40 of us on our year WhatsApp group and we’ve organised meetups and zoom calls. It’s nice to have been able to stay in touch.

The Class of 1995 reunion takes place on 5 June 2025. Book your place