Slater, Jim (1929– )

English financier, entrepreneur, and stock market investor. Slater was chairman of the financial conglomerate Slater Walker Securities, which collapsed when the Bank of England raised short-term interest rates to slow down the economy in 1973. Property and stock markets plummeted, wiping out a substantial portion of the value of Slater Walker's loans, and depositors accelerated their withdrawal of funds. Slater Walker was eventually acquired by the Bank of England. Slater then described himself as a ‘minus millionaire’, but rebuilt his fortune and reputation, becoming a financial columnist and stock picker for the private investor (perhaps best known for selecting high-growth shares), and wrote a number of best-selling personal finance books.

Slater was cleared of charges alleging contravention of the Companies Act in 1977. Since then he has investigated a number of different rule-based methods for buying and selling shares, documenting his investment principles in publications such as The Zulu Principle (meaning becoming relatively expert in a narrow subject by concentrating on one approach), published in 1992, and Beyond The Zulu Principle (outlining how he looks for companies with a track record of strong earnings growth), published in 1996. In 1994 Slater went into partnership with financial publishers Hemmington Scott to produce a service called Company Refs (Really Essential Financial Statistics), a monthly summary of statistics for publicly traded UK companies, which includes brokers' estimates, from which he receives a 15% royalty for paper subscriptions and a 7.5% royalty for online subscriptions.

Slater was an articled clerk from 1946 until he qualified as an accountant in 1953. He was an accountant, then general manager, to a group of metal finishing companies (1953–55); company secretary at Park Royal Vehicles (1955–58); a director at AEC (where he first became interested in investment) in 1959; and deputy sales director at Leyland Motor Corporation in 1963, after which he became chairman of Slater Walker Securities. His leisure interests are chess and tennis. English tennis player Tim Henman was a beneficiary of a Slater tennis scholarship at Reed's School in Surrey.

Slater has written the Capitalist articles for the Sunday Telegraph; a popular column for the Financial Mail on Sunday; and has published his own monthly investment letter called Investing for Growth. His other publications include his autobiography Return To Go (1977), How To Become A Millionaire (2000), and a number of children's books.