Citywealth Leaders List, 60 second interview – David Lambotte, Virdaris

Date: 11 Mar 2026

Karen Jones

This week’s 60 seconds Citywealth Leaders List interview is dedicated to David Lambotte, Founder at Virdaris. With over two decades of experience of working with prominent families, David brings a breadth of wealth, philanthropy and family succession experience. He is a fellow of the Governance Institute and a member of STEP and is recognised as a prominent and leading figure in the family office and trustee industries.

Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.

I am the founder of Virdaris, a new Jersey regulated trust company business with a differentiated offering. Drawing on many years in the trustee industry and leadership in a prominent single family office, I set up Virdaris to leverage that experience and offer a wide range of family office connected services to UHNW families. Those services span short duration c-suite mandates through to a fully outsourced single family office. We also provide traditional private client trustee services to families who recognise value in our hands on expertise with assets and family governance.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Right now, very busy. Although it’s still early days for Virdaris we are fortunate to already have some large family office mandates which are time intensive. So a typical day is staying laser focused on serving their best interests. I like to think that our reputation from doing that well will drive the business forward. I also try to be present for my children and make sure I carve out time for their activities.

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

We love complexity, a challenge, high stakes. The one that comes to mind is a significant capital reallocation project that we are overseeing, taking a family from a highly concentrated position into new investment strategies that reflect the individual goals and wealth purposes for four distinct family branches. Inter-generational wealth transfers and fully rebooted asset allocations are rare events, so we are really enjoying our part in that journey. Lots of soft, tax, timing and other considerations go into doing this well, but we back ourselves to manage the project effectively.

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

Family Offices all face resource challenges; short or long term, capacity or capability based. We help them with on demand executive or operational services which happily bolt-on to their existing structure and team members. No employment delays or complexities, the freedom to start and stop our services as needed, and most importantly some value adding voices that would be hard to source otherwise. A good example came two weeks ago when we assigned (within days) an experienced family office CFO from Virdaris into two family owned businesses to commence advice on best practise, their pathway towards greater profitability, improved cash management and enhanced decision making.

What is your proudest professional achievement?

I’d say it was my development journey in the single family office role I held for several years. I naively thought that I was ready made for the role when I walked in. I quickly discovered the huge learning curve and heightened responsibility of being at the coal face of not only large monetary decisions, but ones that affect people’s lives. I’m proud of the experience gained from that and enjoy applying my learnings with our clients. And what’s great is that the more clients we have, the more we learn and can benefit each of them.

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

Authenticity is vitally important – showing up as your true self, no ‘game face’. Good leaders create accountable and actionable domains, assembling strong teams with leaders who can ‘own their space’. The best leaders also promote ego free and flat hierarchy cultures by the way they interact with everyone.

Who do you most admire and why?

Professionally I immediately thought of Nigel Le Quesne, CEO at JTC. The journey of that business during his tenure is truly remarkable and speaks to how good a leader he is. I started my career there around 25 years ago and was among the first 50 employees. I believe they have over 2,300 now! Nigel’s early decision to adopt an employee ownership model was a masterstroke and is taught in business schools these days.

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

It was work, and it was in Africa. Our latest client has a number of business interests in the continent that we oversee as the outsourced family office. There’s no substitute for getting on the ground and meeting the people involved, board reports only give you one version of the story.

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

In a fantasy world I would be on the PGA tour going head to head with Rory McIlroy for the majors. Back to reality, and with hindsight, I would have enjoyed a career in diplomatic service.

How do you relax after a long day?

Confession time. I really enjoy complex large build Lego to unwind in the evenings. My house is full of these completed sets now. If you catch me on Teams you’ll spot a 1:200 scale Lego Titanic on the shelf behind me, and slightly off camera I’m near to finishing the 9,000 piece Death Star.

Q&A

What services does Virdaris offer UHNW families and family offices?
Virdaris is a Jersey-regulated trust company providing a differentiated range of family office-connected services. These span short-duration C-suite mandates through to a fully outsourced single family office, plus traditional private client trustee services for families that value hands-on expertise with assets and family governance.

What is an outsourced single family office and when does it make sense?
An outsourced single family office lets a family access executive and operational support (or a full office function) without building everything in-house. It suits families facing resource, capacity or capability gaps—short or long term—and offers the freedom to start and stop services as needed, without employment delays or complexities.

How do family offices handle resource and capacity challenges?
Family offices commonly face short- or long-term resource issues around capacity or specialist capability. Virdaris addresses this with on-demand executive or operational services that bolt on to an existing structure and team. A recent example was assigning an experienced family office CFO within days to two family-owned businesses to advise on best practice, profitability, cash management and decision-making.

Technical brief

How do you manage a major capital reallocation or intergenerational wealth transfer for a multi-branch family?
These are high-stakes, relatively rare events involving soft issues, tax, timing and coordination across family branches. Virdaris has overseen a significant capital reallocation that moved a family from a highly concentrated position into new investment strategies aligned with the individual goals and wealth purposes of four distinct family branches, managing the project end-to-end.

What makes a Jersey-regulated trust company useful for UHNW and family office clients?
Jersey regulation provides a recognised, well-established framework for trustee and related services. Combined with hands-on expertise in assets and family governance, it supports both traditional private client trustee work and the broader family office-connected services families need when complexity is high.

Why use short-duration C-suite or executive mandates instead of permanent hires?
They avoid the delays and complexities of employment while delivering specialist, value-adding voices that can be hard to source otherwise. Services can be started and stopped as needed and integrate with an existing family office team.

Experience

What experience does David Lambotte bring to Virdaris?
He brings more than two decades working with prominent families, including executive leadership in a distinguished international single family office and earlier board/regional/global roles with leading private client providers in Jersey, London and the Cayman Islands. He is a Fellow of the Governance Institute and a member of STEP.

How does Virdaris approach complex or high-stakes family office work?
The firm focuses on complexity, challenge and high stakes. It emphasises staying laser-focused on clients’ best interests, applying practical learnings from single-family-office experience, and remaining hands-on (including on-the-ground engagement where needed) so that soft issues, tax, timing and governance considerations are properly managed.

What leadership qualities matter most when serving UHNW families?
Authenticity (showing up as your true self), creating accountable and actionable domains, assembling strong teams whose leaders can “own their space,” and promoting ego-free, flat-hierarchy cultures.

Personal questions

What is a typical day like for the founder of a new Jersey trust and family office services business? Busy, focused on large mandates while still carving out family time.
Why travel on the ground for family office clients rather than relying only on reports? Board reports give one version of the story; meeting people involved provides the fuller picture: e.g., recent Africa work for a client’s business interests.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
David Lambotte is the Founder of Virdaris, a Jersey regulated trust company offering family office services.
His typical day is busy, focused on serving large family office mandates while balancing family time.
Virdaris recently managed a complex capital reallocation project for a family, highlighting their expertise in high-stakes situations.
They provide on-demand executive services to families facing resource challenges without employment complexities.
Lambotte admires Nigel Le Quesne for his effective leadership and employee ownership model at JTC during a remarkable business expansion.