Malcolm started his career in journalism, after national service in which he became a Russian interpreter and interrogator and was commissioned. He moved into public affairs after two years, mainly to safeguard the insurance industry but also to promote Taittinger champagne. He started his own firm Hurlstons in 1980 and worked mainly for multinationals. In addition to insurance and drink, he was active in the co-operative sector, big pharma, oil and gas, retail and television. The time of all staffers at Hurlstons was spent in part on public interest activity - starting the Foundation for Credit Counselling, which now trades as StepChange, the Employee Share Ownership Centre, Registry Trust, Proof of Age Standards Scheme, Orbis and the Standing Committee on Reciprocity among many others.
His interest in investing stems from the first job as a financial journalist but developed when he reached midlife. His approach was to follow other people, ideally people he knew. It produced enough ten-baggers to make up for many flops. In 1994 he started a Small Self-Administered Scheme which he and his wife run without help from intermediaries. He encourages people to invest using their common sense. His investments include Tencent, Ardagh, Moneta, City of London and Experian. He is the largest individual shareholder in the bank he helped to found, Unity Trust. This direct approach to investment and experience in the chair led to his being invited to chair UKSA in 2020 to maintain its stance and help find a successor.
In April 2021 he joined the Pensions minister’s MidLife MOT Board and in July 2021 he helped start a charitable Community Interest Company, Action for Financial Inclusion. In 2025 he started Wiser Advisers, to campaign for board seats for the over 85s.
His hobbies and spare time interests are friendship, pitch and putt, trompe l’oeil, Napoleon III, the silver screen and thinking of exciting new and controversial possibilities.
