Leaders List interview: 60 seconds with Dominique Burnett, Fairway Group

Date: 26 Jun 2024

Karen Jones

This week’s 60-second piece is dedicated to Dominique Burnett, Trust Director at Fairway Group.

Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.

At Fairway, I lead a private client team responsible for a growing global client base. Primary areas of focus include complex asset protection for HNW entrepreneurial clients, strong corporate governance along with bespoke administration services. I frequently travel to meet with international clients and intermediaries, and I have particularly strong connections in Southeast Asia.

What does a typical day look like for you?

It starts with checking emails and my diary to see what I’ll be doing that day. Every day is different, which is what keeps me interested after over twenty years in the industry. I lead a team of 9, so I get involved in a range of day-to-day tasks, talking to clients, discussing new structures and dealing with internal project matters at board level.

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

We are in the process of restructuring a digital asset holding structure for a client, which includes IP holding entities, employee benefit entities and various kinds of service agreements reaching across multiple jurisdictions and time zones. It’s hugely interesting, as there are advice touchpoints for tax, economic substance, trust law and companies law to be woven into a structure that achieves the client’s overall aims.

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

The current uncertainty facing UK non-domiciled status changes is top of many people’s minds. We are liaising with clients and their advisers to discuss options and potential solutions; however, until laws change, we remain poised to act, without committing too early to any one route.

What is your proudest professional achievement?

I don’t tend to dwell on past achievements, but I always enjoy seeing the talented colleagues I have mentored progress in their own careers, whether it is achieving board level appointments or setting up their own businesses.

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

An ability to stay centred and to keep sight of the end goal in the face of multiple distractions. Self-belief is important, along with the empathy and communication skills needed to bring your team along with your vision.

Who do you most admire and why?

Generally, the people I most admire are those who face the worst of this world without letting it make them bitter or afraid. Someone who epitomises this for me is the late, great, Terry Pratchett: a satirist of human failings whose sharpness is tempered with enormous compassion and a deep understanding of what it means to be human, (starting with not treating people like things). And he’s very, very funny.

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

My last big work trip was to Shanghai and Hong Kong. Shanghai is an amazing place; coming from Jersey, the sheer scale of the city is hard to take in when you think over 26 million people live there. I loved the mixture of tradition and futurism, both in the architecture and in the outlook of its people.

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

I originally set out to be a university academic, teaching English Literature. If I had to start over, I’d like to return to that.

How do you relax after a long day?

Either a walk or a swim but, if I can’t have those, then sitting on the sofa with a nice glass of wine and a good book works for me!

You can view Dominique’s profile on the Leaders List here.