Quite a number of British investment bankers have arrived at their
jobs via Eton, Oxford and an MBA. Simon Hirst, though, has taken
the route in tandem. At almost every stage he has been accompanied
by his identical twin Julian. The brothers' careers have since
diverged - Simon recently left ABN Amro to become joint head of
M&A at Commerzbank and Julian is head of the internet team at
UBS Warburg. For over 30 years, though, one would have been hard
pressed to tell them apart.
They were born in London in 1958, their father David being a
barrister who went on to become chairman of the Bar and later, with
a knighthood, a judge of the Court of Appeal. (The twins' older
brother, Jonathan Hirst QC, has followed his father to the oYce of
chairman of the Bar.) The twins were in the same house at Eton and
then went to Keble...
