The kind of media spotlight that's currently trained on Andy Hornby, the bright new chief executive at HBOS, has rarely settled upon Concannon. Yet her story is far from humdrum. With little fanfare, she's won the respect of many of her peers. She holds a non-executive director position on the board of securities services firm Euroclear and also sits on the board of the stockbrokers' trade association, APCIMS. She is simply a very good director, says its chief executive, Angela Knight: "She chairs our retail markets commission, a voluntary role, but one only given to people of high standing in the industry. Her contributions are concise and practical. She gets information out of people-gets them out of the clouds and onto the ground."
Concannon plays down the other string to her bow. Her son, Luke, is one half of the band Nizlopi, which had a number one hit last Christmas with The JCB Song. She and husband Kieron set up a record label, FDM Records, to help Luke and old school friend John Parker on their way. She says Kieron, as the band's manager, does most of the work. But it was her idea to "put a few bob into the boys doing an album," and you suspect that, without her financial skills and understanding of business, they might have floundered. "I try and look after the money side for them, because they're all artists and creative," she confides.
When Concannon made her debut in the securities industry in 1987 (after eight years running a data processing bureau for computer firm, CPS) her timing couldn't have been worse. As she was preparing to join ShareLink, a small, "no frills" private investor share-dealing firm of 40 employees, most of the world's major stock exchanges saw over 20 per cent wiped off overall value in what came to be known as Black Monday.
She worked closely with the firm's founder, entrepreneur David Jones, for the next 10 years. His ambition was to create an easy-to-use share-dealing service, to get "ordinary" people to do what was previously reserved for the elite few-invest in equities. "I started as operations manager," recalls Concannon. "By 1992, I was business development director."
Working with Jones gave her the chance to experience the highs and lows of running a small business. They led a successful management buy-out from BT, its major shareholder, in 1992. Then in 1993, they floated the company on the stockmarket and Concannon sat on the board. By 1995, the US firm Charles Schwab Corporation had bought the business. "I was heavily involved in all of it," she confirms, "and I enjoyed being part of a successful business."
But her ascent into higher management came at a price. When she went to meetings in the City, she was often the only woman present. Consequently, it took her a while to develop a leadership style with which she felt comfortable. "When there aren't many women leaders, you take your cue from those around you. That doesn't always work," she says. She also admits that balancing a demanding career with bringing up a child left her feeling guilty. "There was a trade-off that you had to make, and it wasn't easy," says Concannon. She's thankful organisations are more enlightened about family-friendly policies now, though still thinks childcare is a "nightmare issue" for working mums.
Her industry knowledge brought her to the attention of Halifax and, in 1997, she was chosen to set up its subsidiary, Halifax Share Dealing. Based in Leeds, she quickly scored points for anticipating the internet's potential-within six weeks of its online service going live, 30 per cent of HSD's trade was coming from the Web. HSD is a profitable business for HBOS with turnover of £24m and pre-tax profits of about £6m from 500,000 customers. It acquired another small business IMIWeb, a subsidiary of an Italian bank, in 2003.
Sir James Crosby, who recently stepped down as chief executive of HBOS after 12 years at the helm, cites Concannon's knack for keeping abreast of the technological revolution as a key strength. "A lot of large businesses fail with their smaller businesses or subsidiaries because they don't take the time to harness specialist skills," he says. "Sue put in leading-edge services and systems and was a source of experience in the marketplace."
In a tough financial climate-2002 and 2003 were especially bad business years for most stockbrokers- she is perhaps most admired for the way she built a team committed to good customer service. What Investment readers have voted Halifax Share Dealing "best stockbroker" for four consecutive years. Likewise, Personal Finance and Savings Magazine's readers.
Concannon credits this success to simplicity-running the company with a small business mentality. "It's about doing something that you can put your arms around and say 'this is what we are working towards.' We are dealing with a big chunk of customers' wealth. It's crucial that the admin is spot on, that when people phone, we've got agents who know what they're talking about. We've put a huge amount of effort in and that's helped us win awards," she says.
Concannon learnt some of her craft from her old boss, David Jones-she, too, is trying to demystify the share dealing process and contribute to what the government calls a "shareholding democracy". Earlier this year, the Financial Services Authority set out a five-year plan targeting four million people in the workplace to improve personal financial skills.
Less than one in 10 of the UK population invests in shares. More often than not, says Angela Knight, these tend to be in privatised and demutualised stocks from the 1980s and 1990s. So if the time-strapped public thinks about investing and saving for the future for the first time because there's a useful online service at their fingertips, then that's a very important contribution to the UK savings culture.
According to the Compeer UK Wealth Management Industry Report 2006, trading over the internet is gaining ground. There were 667,000 online investors in the first quarter of this year, compared to 586,000 in 2005. Barclays Stockbrokers reckons there may be a million active individual investors in the UK. Yet Concannon says we're playing catch up with the US, Germany and even Italy. "The equity investment culture in those countries is stronger," she says. "Talk to a taxi driver in New York and he'll know about margins and options. Try and find one in London to do that."
But everyone has to start somewhere, agrees Concannon. And although some individual investors might be hit and miss about how they play the stock market, she thinks it's crucial for UK plc that they continue. "Do your research, use your own industry knowledge, start small and have investment goals- how much profit are you happy to make," she says, adding: "Most investors understand that the stockmarket is for the longer term. If I look at the names customers give to their ShareBuilder accounts, the clues are there: 'retirement fund', 'my house in Spain', 'Jimmy's school fund', 'rainy day'."
Her own investment in Nizlopi was, she concedes, a financial risk. She's reluctant to say just how much FDM Records has cost but in February, Kieron Concannon told The Independent: "If it had gone wrong, I wouldn't have a house to live in. I was truly forced to put everything on the line." His wife admits that the family-run enterprise has been a cashflow nightmare. "The JCB Song has sold about half a million copies. It costs about 25p to press a single then another 25p to pay for royalties and so on. This has to be funded about six weeks before a single has been sold and it takes about three months from the date of sale until we get back any cash. The funding took a bit of a hammering."
Despite the headaches, it's proved an unexpected sop to everyday office life, says Concannon. "Even though it was completely mad and the house was overrun with people and boxes of CDs (because we ran the business from home) the company is established now. It provides a nice foil when you've been in the office for 12 hours," she says.
By going independent the boys have been able to control their own destiny. "Things have been done the right way," she says. "It's completely home grown." It's certainly a victory for small, independent labels willing to combine innovation in Web technology with old-fashioned gigging to reach new fans.
Joe Taylor, a music industry entrepreneur and founder of Nuxx, Nizlopi's publisher, agrees that FDM Records has fought something of a David and Goliath battle and won. "Nizlopi had been courted by a number of successful labels while others were mortified that the band's manager and record label was their father," says Taylor. "Usually you sign, or you don't get anywhere. For novices, the Concannons have shown a good understanding of the industry."
Have they rocked the boat? "It gives musicians ideas, doesn't it?" says Concannon. "Lots of people thought we wouldn't be able to do it as an independent. With something as big as The JCB Song, we'd mess it up. We had help from the distributor and other people who were keen for it to succeed. Small companies doing big hits like that on their own is unusual. But you don't necessarily have to have these big record companies behind you."
Back to her day job, Concannon is the first to admit that compliance is one of her biggest challenges. The European Union's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is a particular brain ache. From November 2007, firms will have to prove "best execution" on deals (that the best price has been obtained for clients in all stock dealings). This will have to take into account issues such as price, venue, cost and speed.
"It's trying to standardise investment practice across Europe," explains Concannon, "which is quite complicated when you think about the sophistication of the market in the UK versus, say, some of the smaller countries in Europe." The gripe, she says, is that timely reporting of trade so that there's complete transparency, for instance, is already very strong in the UK. But, she says: "Complying with regulation is part of being in business-you just get on with it."
If past form is anything to go by, Concannon should be about ready for another move, though Sir James Crosby thinks the opportunity will arise for her to raise her profile within HBOS. "You've got to be patient in this industry," he says. "It's cyclical, you've got to wait for the right environment, for the stockmarket to be right. But I always thought Sue could make what is already a strong business even more high profile within the group."
For now, she's enjoying her role as a mentor-"a lot of the people who started in share dealing at a clerical level when we started the business are now in senior middle-management, and it's great to see that". And as a NED? "I always come away from the Euroclear board with a list of actions. It's a different environment with many opportunities."
Her biggest hurdle may well be a personal one then. With her son now ensconced in the music business, does Concannon feel she has to protect him? "You never stop worrying about your kids," she admits, "but Luke is a sensible, grounded individual. I don't think he'll go off the rails." Fingers crossed, she's got this risk assessment right.
