Citywealth Leaders List, 60 second interview – Daniel Brewer, Resonance

Date: 04 Mar 2026

Karen Jones

This week’s 60 seconds Citywealth Leaders List interview is dedicated to Daniel Brewer, CEO of Resonance.

Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.

Since I founded Resonance in 2002, my role has reformed pretty regularly. From being a lonely entrepreneur with a dream, through doing every job I now employ my team of 70 for, to now leading leaders and enabling our amazing team to thrive in the jobs they do in service of the social enterprises we invest in.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Absolutely no such thing.  One minute I might be pitching to an investor, the next working on an Empty Homes campaign followed by trouble shooting an internal process issue, and then chairing an investment committee. I love the variety and feel very privileged to be in this role, but its not all excitement.  One of the things I’ve learnt to practice is to protect at least 10% of my week for something that genuinely energises me. 

Tell us about some recent, interesting client instructions/requests you have received.

We’ve recently taken on looking after a small amount of capital from Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Church of England, together investing £2.5mn into Resonance Community Developers – a fund which backs community-led organisations to develop affordable homes for local people.

What challenges do your clients face and how are you helping your clients to overcome them?

Social Impact Investing is still in its pioneer phase and whilst I’ve been working on this for nearly a quarter of a century, many investors are still learning how to hold both impact goals and investment goals together.  It’s by no means always true that these objectives are in conflict but you have to exercise more than one muscle at a time.  It’s definitely more like playing the piano than the flute.

What is your proudest professional achievement?

I’m really proud of my part in building a business from scratch that now looks after close to half a billion pounds of other people’s money and growing fast.  But underlying that is pride in the team that has done the work.  We’ve won lots of awards over the years, but the one that really made my heart pound, was winning investment firm of the year at UK REIIF after being shortlisted alongside Legal & General – one of the organisations I most admire.  This was the first time we had competed on a stage alongside other mainstream investment managers and in an open category about real estate investment not just about impact.

What do you consider to be the most important attributes for a leader?

Knowing when to step up and stand clearly in view and when to just get out of the way.  I’m definitely still learning, but the day I think I’ve nailed it will be the day I resign. I’ve learnt to embrace my imposter syndrome.

Who do you most admire and why?

As I’ve begun to understand my white male privilege, I’ve started seeing some of the awesome achievements of a number of women, especially ones that don’t look like or sound like me, with a new level of admiration.  Most of them are unsung heroes quietly getting on with the job in hand.

Where was the last place you travelled to for work or pleasure?

For work I was in Lisbon in November to participate in a Housing and Harm Reduction conference. Truly inspirational place and people, but as ever loved hearing from people with real lived experience from around the world.  Absolutely remarkable stories of resilience and hope.

For pleasure: well it was our 25^th wedding anniversary last year and rather than have a big party we decided to buy ourselves a 3 week train trip around Scandinavia starting in Exeter we travelled over 3,000 km by train and a fair km up fjords on ferries.  All travel and accommodation arranged through the website byway.travel. Check it out, you’ll never fly again!

If you weren’t in this industry, what else might you be doing?

I trained as an engineer and love working with my hands.  I get such a kick out of building something physical that is both beautiful and functional. I think I might be in a factory or on a building site.

How do you relax after a long day?

After a long day I’m very happy cooking up something fresh and spicy but after that I haven’t got much else in me beyond curling up on the sofa in front of a big screen.  At weekends I feel I’ve wasted it if I haven’t done some DIY, gardening or gone for a run….preferably all three.

If you could recommend one person in the private wealth industry who would it be, and what would you say about them? 

The very awesome Jamie Broderick – formerly CEO of UBS Wealth Management and now chair of the Impact Investment Institute.  He was one of three CEOs in the wealth management industry that actually invested their own money into one of our funds.  Since retiring he’s used his platform to influence government and large capital owners to step up and be part of the solution not just part of the problem.  He’s become a great friend and a remarkable role model for me.

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Citywealth Weekly: 25th February 2026