A FORMER Llandovery College pupil has led the launch of a new Mayfair office for a financial firm.

Gwyn Edwards, a promising rugby player whose career was cut short due to an injury, has tacked a different challenge and opened a central London base for Hadlow Edwards Wealth Management Ltd, as part of the company’s ambitious expansion plans.

The financial advice specialists, based in Wrexham, announced the successful takeover of Ellett Wealth Management earlier in the year.

The additional opening of the West End office is part of a long-term Hadlow Edwards strategy to grow their business which employs an 11-strong team with eight specialist financial advisors.

The news comes as the company has just marked its 15th anniversary, having been set up by joint directors Warren Hadlow and Gwyn’s father Medwyn Edwards in 2000.

Gwyn, a Wealth Management Consultant for Hadlow Edwards, won a prestigious scholarship to Llandovery College in Carmarthenshire due to his prowess on the rugby field.

The 26-year-old said: “It was just as I was finishing my A-level years at Llandovery College that I broke one ankle.”

“I got back to fitness and got a place at Loughborough University and intended to carry on and achieve my aim of a professional rugby career. But unfortunately in my first game at Loughborough, I broke the other ankle, and it meant not playing rugby for the entire first year of university.”

“I knew after that there would be too much catching up to do and I would always have weaknesses in both ankles which wouldn’t help so I decided to take life in a different direction.”

Gwyn decided to forge a career in the same industry as his father, whose firm is a Practice in the FTSE 100 Company St. James’s Place Wealth Management, which is one of the UK’s largest wealth management organisations and looks after client funds in excess of £62 bn.

His father Medwyn, Hadlow Edwards Director, said: “The launch went extremely well on a number of levels. There was a lot of good will amongst our guests towards Gwyn and Hadlow Edwards.

“When Gwyn joined us, it allowed us to seriously start thinking about us having a presence down there to look after those clients from a much closer location and to expand what we can offer to more people.