Stuart Harland was born in 1947. With a degree in mathematics, he spent most of his working life in banking and finance, working for Barclays Bank, Banque Nationale de Paris and Sanwa Bank (a large Japanese international bank).

He established and was head of structured finance departments at two of the banks where he devised project finance, property (commercial and residential), transportation, acquisition finance and leasing packages. His clients were large utility companies, commercial and residential development companies, the oil industry, mass transport companies and governments He worked across the UK but the majority of projects were overseas, many syndicated to other banks. Stuart regards structuring a loan as, essentially, one of problem solving in the financial environment.

In the last seven years of his employed career, Stuart was Joint General Manager of Sanwa Bank where he gained the hands-on experience of running a business with a staff of 180, handling the practicalities of Legal, HR, Compliance, Accounting, Internal Audit and Information Technology (as User) departments and dealing with the Bank of England and the FSA (the banking industrys current regulator).

Stuart retired from full time employment in the financial services industry in 2002 but has continued to use his broad knowledge and skills on a self-employed basis, particularly in the property and alternative energy sectors. He has also undertaken other roles:

Stuart is Chief Executive of a financial regulator (the Funeral Planning Authority) giving him a reciprocal insight into how the private sector is regulated the regulated turned regulator;

Stuart is a mediator of commercial and community disputes having trained with CEDR in 2002. In 2005, he was appointed Mediation Advisor to Canterbury Combined Court to establish their mediation scheme, now operational. He has mediated disputes in a great range of sectors including employment, landlord and tenant, property, banking, insurance and a wide variety of neighbourhood conflicts.

Stuart has several roles in the voluntary sector including housing, transport and environmental protection.

Outside interests include squash, opera, theatre and films