Piers Bull died on 30 October
2008 after a long and courageous battle against cancer.
Throughout the 1980s, and until his
retirement in 1996, Bull was a prominent figure in the UK’s big
ticket leasing market.
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He worked initially for Lombard North
Central and then the National Westminster Bank, where he widened
the group’s involvement on to the international stage.
He was born in Johannesburg, South
Africa, in 1944 and moved to Sheffield with his family in 1952. He
joined Coopers Brothers & Co (now PricewaterhouseCoopers),
qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1969 and specialising in
corporate taxation.
He joined Lombard North Central and
emerged in the late 1970s as a senior manager in its big ticket
leasing department. During the early 1980s, Bull established the
team as one of the major players in the big ticket arena.
It is worth remembering that
throughout the 1980s, the vast majority of the developed world’s
major capital assets were financed by the global leasing
market.
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By GlobalDataThe UK was a significant player in
that global market, and the team led by Bull was, as indicated
above, prominent in every aspect of the deals undertaken by the UK
lessors.
In 1987, Bull moved to NatWest Bank’s
Corporate and Institutional Finance Division to build a leasing
team covering both the UK and international leasing.
This move culminated in the formation
of the NatWest Leasing & Asset Finance Unit, which combined the
teams in the parent bank and Lombard under one roof. Bull headed
the 40-strong team until his retirement in 1996.
During his time in the leasing
industry Bull sat on many ELA & FLA committees and he was one
of the FLA team in the 1990s that entered into dialogue with
Treasury officials looking at the tax regime on capital
expenditure.
In retirement, Bull and his wife Eva
enjoyed sailing their two narrow boats from the canal basin right
outside their home in Braunston, Northants. Bull and Eva also spent
time in Spain restoring a traditional finca they acquired in
2001.
Bull maintained a keen eye on the
financial markets until the end but was happy, once he had retired
and finally closed down his consultancy activities, to leave that
world in the hands of those who had worked with him.
Those who knew Piers Bull found him a
modest man, fair, forgiving, dependable and very loyal to those
around him, and a man who always got the job done.
He leaves Eva, his loving and much
loved wife, three daughters and three grandchildren.
