Very few chief executives of big banks know how to brand a cow, what to do when calving season starts, or how to tell Angus from Shorthorn cattle. Except, that is, Ross McEwan.
The Royal Bank of Scotland boss owns a cattle farm with his wife in their native New Zealand. He holidays there twice a year to get away from the strains of his London-based day job and says they bought it as an alternative to spending a similar amount on a “tiny” city flat.
An added advantage of his agricultural escape near Auckland, he says, is that it gives him a glimpse of the choices that small business owners face, such as whether to hire a second farmhand.