Still showing up to the other job: Fathers at Mattioli Woods

At Mattioli Woods, we spend every day helping clients plan for the futures of their families. But this Men's Health Week, which this year falls in the same week as Father's Day, we wanted to turn that lens inward.

We asked six of our own people, spanning five decades, in roles from the training room to the boardroom, to talk about something most of us rarely discuss openly: what the realities of fatherhood actually look like when you're also building a career.

The answers were candid, personal, and at times, surprising. What follows are their stories, in their own words.

Omar Quareshy - trainee financial adviser, Mattioli Woods Financial Adviser Academy

Omar Quareshy, one of our trainee financial advisers, is navigating becoming part of the next generation of financial advisers while also navigating life as a brand-new dad.

Raised by a single dad from the age of five - a quiet, consistent presence and, by Omar's own account, his personal hero - Omar grew up understanding the importance of a father who takes a genuine interest in his child's life.

His earliest memory with his father is a school night in 2008 watching Manchester United in the Champions League final. His dad is a Liverpool fan, but Omar still remembers him being excited for United to win, his son’s team. 

“He was as happy for me as if it had been his own team that had won; my wins have always been his. That sums him up, really.”

Now Omar's own son has arrived, and that example is something he is consciously carrying into how he shows up as a father.

While his setup is different - his wife spends her days at home with the baby - Omar is clear that the responsibility don't sit with one person. "It's not a one-person job," he says. "She needs sleep too."

The moments he most cherishes are the quiet ones; he recalls in the early days, when his son was small enough to sleep on his chest, late at night when it was just the two of them.

 Spending that time in those early months, forming that bond and being present before the world gets busy, were integral to him. Though he works full time, Omar is conscious that he always wants to be someone his son can come to, not just as a father, but a friend.

He believes those early moments are where the foundation is best laid.

Ross Geary - commercial finance director, Mattioli Woods

Ross Geary joined Mattioli Woods at 17 as a finance apprentice, scanning documents and making cups of tea.

At 31 he became commercial finance director of a business approaching half a billion pounds in assets. He doesn't attribute this to being the smartest person in the room, he attributes it entirely to never being willing to stop.

That quality came directly from his father. Growing up, Ross was never without what he needed, but he was also never handed anything. If his friends were going to the cinema, his dad would give him the money, but both cars needed cleaning first.

At the time, Ross resented it and rebelled, being excluded from school repeatedly and determined to do things his own way. Then, around eighteen, something shifted. Joining a larger organisation for the first time, he saw the scale of what was possible - and what he was capable of.

The Geary ethos - previously channelled into school studies and rugby - kicked in, and harder than ever.

"I look around at my peer group now and people are five years behind where I am. I genuinely believe that came from him."

It was precisely those values - work harder than the person next to you and never give less than everything you have - that Ross is now determined to pass on to his own children.

He teaches his daughter to earn her coins through small jobs and hand them back in when she wants something.

Teaching them the importance of earning your place through hard work, he is certain, is one of the best things he can give them.

Dan Miller - Head of IT, Mattioli Woods

Dan grew up with the kind of father who'd construct bike ramps in the field next to the house, set off fireworks for a family bonfire, and one day arrive home with a kayak strapped to the roof of his car on a whim.

That kayak led to the whole family joining a canoe club, weekend tours and two years of adventures. "When I look at opportunities now," Dan says, "I think - just take it. Go for it and see what's on the other side."

That spirit is what Dan consciously tries to replicate with his own two boys, aged nine and twelve. As Head of IT, he's acutely aware that his working life keeps him tied to a screen, which makes the time spent outdoors with his boys all the more deliberate and important.

Getting involved in cubs when a leader fell ill gave him exactly that opportunity; camps, hikes, badge activities, being present in his boys' world rather than watching from the sidelines. "I didn't want to just be doing logistics and paying for things. I wanted to actually be part of it."

Dan co-parents following a separation and is candid that the arrangement has in some ways sharpened his focus. Time with his boys is defined and protected. He works the longer hours when they’re not with him, and steps away when they are. The discipline of the schedule has, unexpectedly, created clarity.

The moments he's proudest of are of teaching each of his boys to ride a bike. His youngest terrified, begging him not to let go - and then the moment he realised he was already doing it. "You're pushing them to achieve something, and at the end of it there's a real joy. A sense of accomplishment."

"The days are long, but the years are short. I've certainly found this to be true."

He’s thoughtful about what being a parent asks of men today compared to previous generations: more emotional presence, involvement, and juggling, (not made any easier by social media) but he doesn't frame it as a burden.

"I don't mind being more involved," he says simply. "Having them was the best thing." His advice to younger fathers is characteristically straightforward: capture the moments, trust your instincts, and don't measure success by anyone else's definition.

"This is one part of your life where you own it. No one can really take it from you."

Scott Stevens - managing director, Business Development & Marketing, Mattioli Woods

Scott Stevens' father left school at twelve. He went on to build a guest house, a hotel, and a restaurant through nothing but hard work and nerve.

When Scott was old enough, that hard work bought him a place at Sherborne, one of the country's leading private schools, an opportunity Scott was acutely aware he hadn't earned yet, and was determined not to waste.

But Sherborne came with its own pressure. "There was always a fear of never having quite as much money as everybody else," he says. That feeling never fully left him. It became, instead, a driver - the thing that pushed him into the City, kept him at his desk from half seven until half six, and eventually led him to a belief that good financial advice should be available to far more people than currently receive it.

Before he left for school, his father gave him one piece of advice that stayed with him: you don't need to be the best, but you do need to try your best. It’s a distinction that matters to Scott - between outcome and effort, between what you achieve and what you put in.

Scott's own children are now in their early twenties, old enough for the hardest part of the job to be largely done. What he wanted for them was what his parents had wanted for him: not a free ride, but a solid foundation, and the confidence that comes from understanding money and never being caught off guard by it.

He’s still driven by the memory of sitting in a room full of people who had more than he did - not with bitterness, but with clarity about what financial confidence can do for a person, and what the absence of it costs.

Eddie Woore - wealth management director, Mattioli Woods

Eddie's father was born in 1914, a Quaker, merchant mariner and a man shaped by the war at sea, who came home, got on with things, and never made a fuss about any of it.

By the time Eddie was growing up, his father was older, quieter, and worn down by a life that hadn't always been kind, including a period of real financial insecurity that could be felt by the whole family.

"I knew from very early on what I didn't want," Eddie says. "I didn't want my family to ever be in that position. It made me careful and thorough. Some people call me Steady Eddie and I suppose that's where it comes from."

Where his father was distant by circumstance and generation, Eddie has made a point of being present and involved, getting stuck in - entering his children's world rather than waiting for them to enter his. Last Sunday, he took them to Warhammer World, and speaks about it with the same enthusiasm they did.

"Regardless of the activity, it's not just about taking them to these things. You have to delve in and if you do, I think you'll find yourself very interested."

Two of his three children have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum, and navigating that has reshaped the way he thinks about parenting entirely. "You can't just say, here's the solution. You have to understand how they experience things first, how they experience the world, and then find a way through that supports their ways of understanding."

The financial instability of his own childhood - not always knowing where they would live, or how they’d put food on the table - shaped his career too, making Eddie determined to be a stable provider. "It made me the consultant I am," he says simply.

He made deliberate choices along the way, once or twice passing up progression because the extra stress wasn't worth what it would cost at home. "Something has to give," he says. "And it wasn't going to be the family."

Bob Woods MBE - founder and senior adviser, Mattioli Woods

Bob Woods MBE co-founded Mattioli Woods in 1991 alongside Ian Mattioli MBE DL Hon LLD, with around £50,000 in savings and six children under six to look after between them, and six months to make it work.

Their ambition at the time was modest by design - to pay the mortgage, fund their pensions, and do right by their clients. The business grew anyway. But the values that shaped it were set long before the first client walked through the door.

For Bob his father was his guiding light - as a young man he had lived through economic hardship and lost his twenties to the Second World War.

For him, family was everything. He led the family without fanfare and quietly set strong standards of behaviour, creating a home full of debate, curiosity, and learning.

"He prioritised family over everything," Bob says. "Over wealth, over career, over status. And what he gave me, above everything else, was inner confidence and a sense of contentment. The idea that you could be at peace with what you had."

That upbringing shaped not just Bob the father, but Bob the businessman. When he and Ian set Mattioli Woods up, they made a pact: they would never let success change who they were. The goal was never empire, it was security, integrity, and staying true to themselves.

While Bob worked long hours with dedication - most businesses demand that - he was still committed to fatherhood.

"Weekends were family time and I made sure I saw the children before bed whenever I possibly could. It sounds small, but it wasn't always an easy feat."

“He’s honest that he didn't always make it but the intention was consistent, and he believes children feel intention even when the hours don't always reflect it.

Growing up in a home where debate was encouraged and curiosity was nurtured gave Bob something he has tried to pass on in turn; the confidence to think for himself, and the space to do it.

That environment, he believes, is what allows children to truly find their own way with confidence in themselves to deal with life’s challenges. His own children are a testament to that - one is a farmer, another a world class skydiver - careers chosen not for status or salary, but because they’re genuinely loved.

"Do what you love and contentment will come," he says simply. It is, perhaps, the same philosophy that quietly underpinned Mattioli Woods from the start: a business built not on enormous ambition, but on doing something well and doing it honestly. The rest followed.

"Show as much love as you possibly can," he says. "But don't try to control their lives. The ones who thrive are the ones who are trusted to find their own way." It is, at its heart, the same gift his father gave him.

These stories tell us that there’s no blueprint to fatherhood. No formula that balances the hours, no perfect way to be fully present at work and fully present at home at the same time.

What these six conversations make clear is that every father finds his own version of it - shaped by his own childhood, his career and the moments he decided were non-negotiable. The details differ enormously while the intention - to love, support and be present - is exactly the same.

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