Each week, we dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, Nadine Buckland, CEO of Zenzic Capital, takes us through her business career.
Anna Moloney
Thursday 09 April 2026 12:00 pm | Updated: Thursday 09 April 2026 1:13 pm
Each week, we dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, Nadine Buckland, CEO and founder of Zenzic Capital, takes us through her business career journey in Square Mile and Me
CV Name: Nadine Buckland Job title: CEO and founder of Zenzic Capital Age: 46 Born: London Lives: Tunbridge Wells Talents: Latin and Ballroom dancing Motto: You can’t make a good loan to a bad borrower Biggest perk of the job? Travelling and meeting really interesting people, often in great places. Coffee order: Double macchiato with oat milk and chocolate dusted on top! Cocktail order: French 75 Favourite book: The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson is my favourite book to read to my children. Work wise, The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. What was your first job?
My first job was selling tickets in the box office to the away fans at Crystal Palace Football Club. I have grown up with the club, seeing the matches with all my family throughout my childhood. My mother and father even met at the club and now I love taking my own children to the games as a season ticket holder myself.
What was your first role in the City?
I worked for a boutique insolvency practice as an insolvency administrator on trading receiverships. It was a great learning experience and taught me a lot about business. Business owners have to make decisions daily and you live with those consequences. Sometimes the companies I worked with were fundamentally sound and had the ability to be turned around, others sadly had to be sold or wound up. All of those experiences early in my career helped shape how I lead my business now.
When did you know you wanted to build a career in business?
I knew I wanted to build my own business from an early age. It started with my father suggesting I would make a much better business owner than employee. Looking back I think he observed that I always prioritised impact rather than spending time on the kind of internal positioning often needed to move up the career ladder.
After working through my twenties, not feeling I was reaching my full potential, I decided to listen to his advice. At 32 I created Zenzic Capital with my co-founder Thomas Lloyd-Jones. Zenzic operates in the private credit space, specifically focused on asset-backed lending. 15 years ago the private credit market in the UK was nascent but post the Global Financial Crisis we felt there was a real opportunity to enter a space that, if it followed the growth of the US, would allow us to build a strong sustainable business.
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Certainly the market in that time has shifted considerably. In 2013, roughly 80 per cent of business lending was bank led with the balance coming from capital markets. Now the bank market share has dropped to roughly 55 per cent and private credit funds and insurance companies have grown to take up 25 per cent and that figure is growing quickly.
What’s one thing you love about the City of London?
I love the walk over London Bridge in the morning. The view to Tower Bridge always makes me pause no matter how many times I have seen it and the energy I feel from everyone walking to work genuinely makes me proud to own a business based in London.
And one thing you would change?
The various routes that the black cabs are now unable to take through the City. The black cab for me is simply iconic and it’s such a shame that their work is made so much harder by ever changing road closures and increasing road works.
What’s been your most memorable business meeting?
My most memorable meeting was actually when I was doing my work experience at 16 so, 30 years ago. I was working in an insolvency firm and the team was led by a fantastic woman who has since become a mentor to me.
One day, she drove me in her BMW cabriolet to TGI Fridays in Covent Garden. I remember sitting in that car, looking at her and wanting so much to be like her. She was confident, successful and completely in control of her path. That moment has stayed with me ever since, and I’m sure that part of who I am today was shaped in that car, on that drive, imagining what might be possible
What’s been your proudest moment?
Raising our first institutional capital was a major milestone and one that I was incredibly proud of. It validated we had built a business that was resilient, operationally sound, disciplined in how we invest and had a clear path to scale.
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I look up to my children. They have a thirst for life that as an adult we lose sometimes. I think we should all pause, take a step back and remember what life was like without all the pressure and stress and think what is life about, we aren’t machines, we are here to live.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
This is less careers advice but more business advice. Someone recently described running a business like being in hand-to-hand combat. There is a physical dimension to running a business that is often overlooked and I couldn’t have agreed more.
The constant checking that things have been done, negotiating, chasing, persuading… fighting. He suggested starting the day early, setting time aside to think before the day really begins, doing the things also that matter to me, like being present for my children by doing the school run and exercising. I have found since adopting that discipline that my home life is happier and I am more efficient and more consistent in how I make decisions.
And the worst?
I can’t say that the careers advice given to me by my school was the best. I was told that your career should follow what you are strongest at academically and didn’t touch on anything about the importance of your soft skills. Whilst that advice can be relevant for some, I found it to be too narrow. What matters more in my view is building a career around something that genuinely interests you and which plays to your personal character strengths.
I offer internships at Zenzic and the interns often speak to me about a career in investing. I always suggest if you wish to pursue investing as a career, do it in a sector that you have a genuine interest and enthusiasm for. You will make a better investor for it and will feel more fulfilled in our career.
Are you optimistic for the year ahead?
Absolutely. Although I am realist, that leans to being optimistic. I am comfortable with a level of uncertainty but this year is looking positive for our strategy. Banks are continuing to retrench from lending in markets we operate in and so we can offer true long-term partnerships to borrowers to enable them to grow. That’s one of the many things I love about my job.
We’re going for lunch, and you’re picking – where are we going?
I’m much more of a breakfast person! So if you are buying breakfast I would say The Wolseley City. I was very happy when it opened in the City. I love being surrounded in the morning with lots of people clearly trying to do business of some sort. It’s a great way to start the day and the breakfast selection is perfect, whether you want to be healthy or fancy a traditional English, there is something for everyone.
And if we’re grabbing a drink after work?
The Ned. I love to listen to live music and I think the refurbishment of the ground floor into such a diverse use of space is really remarkable. The atmosphere inside is always great.
Where’s home during the week?
When I am in the UK, I split my time between London and Tunbridge Wells as my role requires a lot of travelling, mainly across the US and Europe.
And where might we find you at the weekend?
Mostly travelling between Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks. Like a lot of parents with active children, I spend a lot of time in the car travelling to and from watching my children partake in their chosen hobbies/sports.
You’ve got a well-deserved two weeks off. Where are you going and who with?
Sadly I’m very rarely able to take two full weeks off but if I were able to you would find me with my children and husband in Cornwall at our home in Marazion. It’s our happy place.
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