As part of the 50 Years of Girls at Rugby School celebrations, we spoke with Juliet Hope (B 79-81) about her experience at Rugby School and her journey from the corporate world to becoming the founder of the charity Startup.

Juliet Hope MBE began her career with NM Rothschild & Sons, building an international investment management career across Asia, based in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and London. She managed award-winning Asian equity portfolios, led regional asset allocation, served on Rothschild Asset Management’s International Strategy Committee, and later headed Asian business development globally.

In 2006, Juliet founded Startup, a pioneering charity supporting women to turn their lives around through enterprise. She went on to launch Startupnow for Women, funded by the Big Lottery Fund and charitable trusts, supporting over 1,300 women ex-offenders with a re-offending rate of under 5%. From 2016, she led the six-year Breaking the Cycle programme, supporting more than 1,700 young women into education, apprenticeships, and self-employment.

Juliet has received multiple national awards, including Daily Mail Inspirational Woman of the Year, Oxfordshire High Sheriff’s Award, and an MBE for services to the rehabilitation of women offenders. Hear more about her journey below. 

Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and what lead you to pursue a career as an investment banker and start your charity?

I’d always wanted from a young age to be a child psychiatrist so chose science A Levels at Rugby, with the expectation to study medicine. I soon realised I was far more suited and interested in studying Humanities subjects and chose a Liberal Arts degree in the U.S., with a double major of Economics & Psychology at Vassar and Harvard. My interest in Economics continued, spending a year at Oxford before joining the graduate programme at NM Rothschild & Sons, which included further investment management qualifications at the London Business School.

Far from being any kind of academic, it was the passion and hands-on fun of managing international equity funds that saw me getting up at some ungodly hour every day, to cover the Asian markets from London. The excitement and high paced life continued in Hong Kong, then Japan but once back in the U.K., leaving the City after 12 years and making my family and raising my two daughters a priority, was an easy decision. 

I’d started to become involved in some pro bono projects and when my daughters started school, I set up a charity called Startup with the clear aim to support women to overcome challenges and turn their lives around, by setting up a small business. Over 12 years running the programmes, over 3,000 women were supported, with 1,300 having been in prison with an under 5% re-offending rate; the more recent ‘Breaking the Cycle’ programme focused on supporting younger women to overcome challenges in their lives and become financially independent.

What did you enjoy most about your career as an investment banker?  

As part of the International Asset Management team at NM Rothschild & Sons, we would start the day looking at changes in the world overnight; to assess how an increase in interest rates or market sentiment could impact the country weightings, then filter down to companies we held or were looking to invest in. 

Apart from the intellectual challenge, I loved the task of weighing up the risks involved at each stage, as if I was playing backgammon; when the team was involved it could end up as tactical and exciting as playing polo, when on the rare occasions I scored the winning goal!

I also enjoyed the incredible opportunities to travel across Asia and explore the developing countries and emerging markets. I can still vividly remember the excitement almost forty years ago, of being part of the first international investment in Vietnam and also taking a gamble that Asahi’s new super dry beer would be a hit! 

Investment banking has traditionally been a male-dominated field, what was your experience working as a woman in this environment, and how did it shape your approach to leading a charity?

When I look back at those first years in the late 1980s and through the 90s, although I didn’t feel it day to day, I realise there were considerably less opportunities for women to succeed in the City. When interviewed in 1996 by the Telegraph for their article ‘She’s Big in the City’, looking at how women had managed to break through this male-dominated ceiling, I’d said I was sure my time at Rugby had been a major contributing factor.  As my daily experience had been one of only 8 girls in a dining room, surrounded by 80 boys, when I found myself years later as the only woman round a boardroom table, it was a walk in the park! 

I remember being fearless meeting anyone and it certainly shaped my approach to making presentations, especially when confronted with typically male dominated investors; on one occasion having to talk to over 500 packed into a room in Japan and on another, representing Startup, facing a rowdy crowd in the House of Commons, fighting for funds to support rehabilitation.

Whilst here at Rugby, were there any teachers or members of staff who had a lasting impact on you, and what are some of your favourite memories?

The Headmaster, Jim Woodhouse, ran a general studies class for a small group in XX, which I remember being very thought provoking and a lot of fun; he asked some far reaching questions, including some around how the School could be improved and our vision for the future.

It had become apparent that he selected those students that stood out, either being high achievers, or those that were best described as ‘trouble makers’. I would like to think I met his first criteria at some levels but certainly met the second one as well; just remembering the rather infamous occasion when his son invited a few students over to the Head Master’s house, where we managed to demolish every drop of alcohol including the cooking sherry! 

In my XX year, I moved from living in Crescent House into the family home of Frankie Drewitt which would certainly have a lasting impact on me. Although my misdemeanours were never major, it was hoped this change would remove distractions from my A Level studies, as well as my distracting others! 

Our meeting again at a 40th reunion dinner in London a few years ago was pure happenstance but such a joy to meet this patient, wonderful man again who taught me to do backward somersaults in my study breaks and enabled me to finish my studies in the quiet calm of his family home. Frankie reminded me, in fact the whole dinner, that I had been the first of a number of girls over the years who had been sent to his ‘clink’! It was a real pleasure to share the success of Startup’s Breaking the Cycle programme with him and how it had supported over 1,700 young women to turn their lives in a more positive direction. 

Favourite memories include the times spent volunteering, such happy afternoons with Riding for the Disabled, an action packed fundraising canoe down the River Thames and a memorable summer camp organised by the Rugby Clubs London, with children who’d never seen a beach or the sea before. My regular visits to Warwick Mental Hospital (which closed down not long afterwards) provided fascinating insight into the life of a psychiatrist, as they surprisingly allowed me free access to patients and some pretty eye-watering treatments they received.  These visits very likely contributed to my decision to opt for a career in the City rather than pursue medicine to become a psychiatrist! 

This year marks 50 years since girls joined Rugby School - an incredible milestone. How do you feel that your time at Rugby Shaped who you are today?

It was a dramatic change coming from a girls’ day school in London to being such a minority in a boys’ boarding school but I can genuinely say it was the best experience and undoubtedly shaped the person I am today.  

Imagine the fun you would have had as a boy, challenging girls coming into your class, your school, the world you’d had a few years to adapt to already.  Despite us all inevitably being top dogs at our previous schools, it was a big challenge for us girls, making the academic adjustment coming into the sixth form; also at a personal level and a few did struggle, dropping out during the first year. 

The rewards for those of us who stayed the course were immense and far reaching, apart from all the friendships made and academic achievements, my father would have said receiving a kiss from Billy Beaumont after he won a Rugby tournament in 1980 was my highest accolade! My daughters are still surprised that I would have even made the choir, played the flute in jazz quartets, let alone had the lead in the plays and of course been in every single sports team, just to make up numbers! 

What advice would you give to the girls currently at Rugby, or those wanting to join?

My advice to my daughter before she went to Rugby still stands today for those girls considering going, to enjoy every single minute of the ‘The Whole Person, the Whole Point’ experience that Rugby offers. Of course, there is the extraordinarily beautiful campus where so many others before you have achieved great things, and not just lifting a ball in the air for the first time! Take every chance to try new sports, clubs, voluntary work which is all there for you to experience. 

You will be making life-long friendships and have the wonderful teaching staff in classes but don’t forget the others supporting you in your boarding house and throughout the school; all helping to provide you with the perfect grounding before your next exciting steps after school.

Looking back, is there anything you wish you had known during your time here?

I only have very fond memories of my time at Rugby, although realise there were challenges, as well as the significant benefits of being one of the first girls in the School other than masters’ daughters. I wish I’d known that there would have been plenty of time to enjoy myself at University, so I didn’t need to try and fit in all in while studying for my A levels!

Setting an alarm clock at least half an hour before Chapel, would have certainly reduced the mad runs down Barby Road and inevitable arrival just as the doors were closing! It would also have been worth knowing that you definitely can spot someone wearing pyjamas under school clothes.

What does it mean to you to be part of Rugby’s history, especially in this 50th anniversary for girls at the School?

My first reaction is one of incredulity that I’m really that old and it was that long ago, in 1979, when I joined the School! Then of course I remember it was my beloved grandfather who had inspired me to come to his alma mater, joining the School 60 years earlier.  

I was very pleased when my daughter Charlotte chose to join the sixth form in 2017 and it really was ‘going down memory lane’ for me walking the same corridors in Bradley House that she did, sharing similar experiences. It was clear that the School continued to provide the same sense of purpose, justice and holistic education; even the time for volunteering was still firmly in the weekly calendar, as was the experience of enduring the School’s rather dubious plumbing in multi-shared bathrooms! 

What had changed significantly since my time at the School was the equal footing the girls enjoyed, no longer put on a pedestal by the boys, my daughter and her peers simply part of the fabric of the School.

I am very proud to be part of this 50th anniversary for girls and realise the impact the School has had on my family, with the affiliation spanning exactly 100 years, from when my grandfather joined Rugby to when my daughter left. This inspired me to leave a legacy in my will, to enable the Arnold Foundation to provide opportunities for others to experience a Rugby School education and I am honoured to be a member of the Charles Shorto Legacy Society.   

Is there anything else that you would like to share about your time at Rugby?

I came across an entry in my late grandfather’s diary back in 1919, when he was at Rugby and tells of his excitement at the reward for excelling in his Maths class, was to spend time using the School telescope. He notes that it belonged to an OR (I presume George Seabroke) who he said was Astronomer Royal and a special room was built at the School to allow full rotation of the telescope.