Investment banker who is comfortable taking his religious beliefs to the office
City stalwart explains the influence of evangelical Christianity on his everyday business life in his newly published book God at Work
The Times, Business, Monday 14th March 2007
Attempting to square God with Mammon is not the usual pastime of investment bankers, especially ones who earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a year and whose deal résumé includes the likes of Anglo American’s £12 billion takeover of De Beers.
Ken Costa knows this. And he realises that his new book, God at Work, which focuses on the relationship between the Christian faith and working life, could have him accused of hypocrisy.
“The reservations are deep,” says the chairman of investment banking for Europe, Middle East and Africa at UBS. “Who wants to put themselves out as a target to be sniped at?”
A charge of hypocrisy would not sit easily with the author, a native South African. It was the perception of falseness that prompted Mr Costa, who came of age in apartheid-era student politics, initially to reject Christianity, or at least the “warped” version of it offered by his country’s regime at that time.
But now, towards the end of his career, and as chairman of Alpha International, the evangelical Christian organisation, he is willing to take any flak that may be directed his way. “The answer is that it is another part of one’s faith. If there is good news, tell it.”
Read more here.
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