By Alec Hogg
I lost a friend last month. We’d only known each other a few months, but during that time this London-based Saffer made a huge impression. Before we met, Jeff Paterson had lost a leg to cancer and spent much of his waking hours fighting the disease. But you’d never have known it during our interviews or, as we got to know each other better, when he was cracking jokes over dinner or tea.
Jeff leaves a wife, a daughter and many friends. Plus the 2017 Triumph Over Adversity title which, last December, earned him a standing ovation in London at Amazon’s prestigious awards for entrepreneurs. The legacy of the Sandringham High old boy will live on through Fourex, the revolutionary retail foreign exchange business he created with long time partner Oliver du Toit. Ditto by his example.
My career has brought me into close contact with literally thousands of business personalities. Most of them soon fade from memory. Not Jeff. He was one of a kind, a tireless seeker after knowledge, a voracious researcher and an open-minded genius. No idea, no matter how seemingly outrageous, was unworthy. He lived by the principle that contempt prior to investigation was the prime reason for human ignorance.
That also gave Jeff his relentless persistence, the critical trait which all great entrepreneurs have in abundance. He and Oliver invested six years developing Fourex when nobody else thought a better forex swapping deal for consumers was possible. They unknowingly worked off a template of the “shared value” business approach that’s catching fire globally. A business model where everyone wins. Jeff will be missed. But this disruptive business pioneer will never be forgotten. – Alec Hogg
From Hugh Bauer of Genesis Capital Partners:
As a friend and business partner of Jeff’s your words mean a lot. You are spot-on in the way you describe Jeff’s positivity and that “you’d never have known” the battle he was waging. Not once during our year and a half of working with Jeff did he ever complain. A week after his amputation he was on the tubes getting around and just “getting on with it” in his words, when so many of us would have complained incessantly. I learnt so much from him about appreciating things and a perspective on whether it’s really necessary to complain so much about the mundane nonsense we tend to be negative about. Even for his memorial, he showed his positivity when he insisted that people just have a party without suits and ties.
For him to have passed away now is in so many ways unjust, given the years of dedication and commitment he made to building Fourex, particularly now as Fourex is building huge momentum and growing into something substantial. He told me a few months ago while walking to check up on one of the kiosks at Kings Cross how he couldn’t die now, as there was so much more still to achieve and he was just starting to see the fruits of what he’d planted.
We were lucky enough to see him at the beginning of February just before he passed, and spent time with him and Michelle. Even during his last few weeks he was thinking about Fourex, telling us he’d written down some practical learnings from the previous few months in the business that we could use going forward. He was also so giving of spirit right up until the end, in a way like few people are during the prime of their health. The last time we saw him, he gave us a gift of a framed rare two dollar bill, a symbol for good luck, along with a personal message. For him to have been thinking about us in such a personal way during his last few weeks meant so much to me, and the framed note and message has pride of place in my office, where I proudly show it to anyone who walks in for the first time.
We’re committed to building Fourex into something exceptional and globally remarkable, not just for the success it brings, but also as a legacy for Jeff and as something that Michelle and Monique can look to proudly as a celebration of Jeff.
Having grown to know Jeff as a friend is a privilege I’ll hold with me.
