Introducing Jessica Miller, Founder of Strela Advisory, bespoke investigation and intelligence boutique
Jessica Miller, Founder of Strela Advisory | Elizabeth Keates Photography
Meet Jessica, Founder of Strela Advisory
Here she shares how she started, how she is disrupting traditional business models, overcoming stereotypes as a woman in business, her money secrets and penchant for handbags!
Website: Strela advisory
linkedin Jessica Miller | Strela advisory
“I am the founder of investigations boutique Strela Advisory (est. 2017). The purpose behind Strela Advisory is to provide bespoke investigations and intelligence to resolve our clients’ complex commercial and personal problems. My background is extremely international – I have lived in several countries and speak 5 languages – and the notion of “intelligence gathering” is inherent to me, as a means to adapt to new environments. But with Strela, I want to go a step further: focussing not solely on intelligence, but on its use (because that is where its real value lies) by devising individual approaches to client problems, for which investigations delivers us to our desired destination.”
What inspired you to set up your own business?
It was largely an act of rebellion. I realised that the traditional business models in my industry weren’t where I saw my future and professional development. At the same time, it was becoming apparent to me that there may be another way of providing a more bespoke offering to clients. Essentially, devising goal-orientated investigations, which draw on top talent, expertise and access across jurisdictions and sectors.
Strela Advisory has allowed me to hone and evolve this approach, building my own distinct practice by focussing on each individual client’s needs while playing to my personal and professional strengths.
What services do you provide for your clients?
Services are broadly split into three areas, although there is a significant crossover and synchronicity between them: asset recovery; dispute support; and then those that fall under private client. The latter is the application of investigations to address and remedy more personal concerns for principals themselves (or their family offices), such as family disputes, asset protection, or reputational issues.
Who are your typical clients?
My ultimate clients tend to be (U)HNWI, their family offices, or companies which are effectively an extension of the individual. While each client’s problem is personal to them, the unifying themes tend to be an individual faced with a serious personal problem, crisis situation, or commercial dispute, who lacking a complete picture of the situation in front of them. As a result, defining the correct response becomes difficult, almost impossible. Intelligence enhances decision-making capacity by showing you the landscape in which you are operating, and its correct application is where you draw your advantage.
Referrals and engagements come through: lawyers working across the disputes spectrum (from commercial litigation and arbitration, through to contentious trust and probate); other advisors working in the private client space (wealth managers, bankers, PRs); and lastly, through personal networks that I have built up over the years.
I speak Russian, and spend a considerable amount of time in the CIS, and have thus developed an expertise particularly in working for CIS clients, either still in the region or with a base in the UK/Western Europe. I am also seeing an increasing amount of work from the GCC, particularly for (U)HNWI with investments or a semi-permanent presence in London.
Jessica Miller, Founder of Strela Advisory | Elizabeth Keates Photography
Where do you see intelligence as fitting within an individual’s overall investment and wealth strategy?
Insightful, well-sourced intelligence is the bedrock of good decision-making. It’s difficult to implement a strategy, or even devise the individual tactics within that, if you don’t know what or who you’re dealing with.
“Global business” is not a notion reserved for massive corporations, businesses of all sizes are seeking opportunities internationally, exposing themselves to the opportunities but equally the risks of new jurisdictions. The legal and compliance obligations on business owners and investors are huge – from FCPA, Bribery Act, and KYC and AML requirements, through to OFAC and European sanctions. In addition to this, are the reputational and ethical considerations of where and how you invest, and who you partner with: the rising importance of ESG, shareholder activism, and responsible investing.
While on first reading, these unescapable realities and obligations of global commerce can appear onerous and frankly terrifying, being well-informed and well-positioned is half the battle won. Enhanced due diligence – taking a really deep view of a potential partner, investor, or acquisition – can save you from a world of pain by identifying and interrogating potential issues right at the start.
One aspect of your services is supporting high profile and UHNWI and their teams during divorce or inheritance disputes, can you explain the process and a hypothetical scenario in more detail?
Where I would be brought in here, is typically in asset-tracing and recovery: identifying and mapping the global holdings, properties, and commercial structures of an individual. The methodology for is very similar to that which is applied in a commercial litigation or arbitration (where you are seeking a freezing order, or enforcing a judgment or award). However, there is extremely specific context to these personal disputes, which an investigator needs to keep in mind, and which influence our strategy and defined aim.
I write about this more here, but during divorce or probate you’re addressing an information asymmetry: one party (the client) is deliberately being kept in the dark by the other. In a commercial litigation, I’m recovering assets against a qualified amount (the value of the claim) and as a first step, I look for the most easily identifiable assets in the best jurisdictions. This is not the case in divorce or probate.
Here, you need to compile a comprehensive picture of “everything”, against a backdrop of (i) and initially uncertain estimate of what that “everything” is, compiled from media reporting, client recollections, and piecemeal paperwork; (ii) a counterparty who is actively trying to hide wealth from you, and may have had a significant head-start in doing so.
At the same time, you are working for a client in one of the most difficult and devastating times of their life. An investigator’s approach is therefore also informed by responsibility towards the client in drawing the line between professional assistance, and feeding conspiracy or rendering false hope. One needs to work closely with the client and their legal teams, really listen to them and understand what they want to achieve. Close communication with clients is always pivotal, so that we can collectively respond to findings, and hone or reorientate strategy as necessary.
What are your most valuable business resources?
Because I work in investigations, and as my business model centres on bringing together the best expertise and access, my personal and professional networks are my biggest asset. I have spent years building up relationships with individuals who I trust on the basis of their discretion, experience, and access and ability to deliver. So many conversations with client and potential clients commence with “do you know how to…” and the answer will invariably hinge on who I know, and who they know.
Have you faced any challenges as a woman in business? If so, how have you dealt with them?
Yes; for me it boils down to that notion of “you can’t be what you can’t see.” My industry is markedly male-dominated at the senior and business-owner level. I think this is a legacy stemming from where investigations professionals were traditionally recruited: intelligence services and the military. In tandem, the notion of being a “rain-maker” is particularly lauded, because success is predicated on bringing in clients and new business.
Many of the traditional attributes associated with this “rain-maker” trope are those that are socially and systemically encouraged in men (as very alpha) and less in women: extreme confidence, owning the room, pitching big, being a little eccentric/out-there etc. Mad Men or Wolf of Wall Street are examples in the extreme, but nonetheless illustrate a point.
When I started out, I didn’t think about the implications of this imbalance or set of expectations. But when you’re considering promotion, or how you build your own practice, pitch business, and run teams, you start to look for role models like you and realise that there are very, very few.
I wouldn’t say I have “dealt” with these issues, so much as continue to deal with them! But my go-to’s are: I observe (in a non-creepy way) men a lot and, while you cannot adopt someone else’s individual “X Factor”, those “rain-makers” project a confidence and boldness in how they navigate the world. Experience-based authority and self-belief are hugely important. On that basis, I look for (or make) opportunities to showcase my expertise – this externally strengthens your position and standing, and also forms the basis for new conversations, but is internally reinforcing. Last, I think there is something incredibly cool, powerful, and hugely impressive about seeing women relentlessly forge ahead in traditionally male-dominated industries – I draw strength from seeing other women shine, and have a great network of inspirational female counterparts.
Jessica Miller, Founder of Strela Advisory | Elizabeth Keates Photography
What are your 5 go-to tips for running a business?
Get the best expertise you can
Trust your gut (or read Blink by Malcom Gladwell, and then trust it!)
Work out what your ethics and values are early on and stand by them.
If you have an idea, focus on making it the best you can then put it out there. Don’t get obsessed by absolute perfection, it’s an illusion and you’ll miss an opportunity. Instead, plan it out to the greatest extent you can, find someone you trust from the relevant audience and pitch it to them, take the feedback, iron out the creases, then go for it!
Pay more attention to what your clients and potential clients are saying, than what your competitors are doing.
What do you wish you had known before you started?
That standing out from the crowd is your competitive edge and you should build on, and nurture, what makes you different. Next to your expertise, it’s your greatest asset. Initially, I felt extremely anxious about - almost apologetic for - not being a man in my mid-40s – 50s. I regretted not “fitting the norm” for business owners and revenue-generators in my industry. Now I embrace it; you need people to remember who you are, and what’s the point of starting a business to be exactly the same as your competitors?? Plus grey suits don’t suit me anyway!
Jessica Miller, Founder of Strela Advisory | Elizabeth Keates Photography
How do you define wealth?
Security. Independence. Opportunity. I define wealth (or its importance) by what it enables: a secure foundation (in life) which in turn emboldens and liberates you. The pandemic has shone such a light on this. British middle classes have saved over the lockdowns, and the Bank of England is hedging the economic recovery partly on their spending power. Those already at a disadvantage have even less now, and (particularly for children from low-income backgrounds) face diminished possibilities for the future. Even all too recently, women have lacked behind in access to wealth relative to men, deeply impacting us on a really fundamental level: from horror stories of grandmothers who didn’t know the parlous state of their finances until their husbands died, through to the women who lack the financial means to escape abusive relationships.
What is the best financial decision you have ever made?
Spending on expertise to navigate the serious stuff: an excellent accountant (personal and business) and good lawyers for all contracts, terms and conditions etc.
What did you learn about finance and money when you were growing up?
The freedom (or freedom to rebel) that comes with earning your own money. I got a steady babysitting job when I was 13 (sounds odd now but it was the USA in the late 1990s!) about the same time as I started having major fashion disagreements with my mum. Being able to go to the Mall and fund my own, independent, (awful 90s) style choices felt so empowering.
Which area of finance do you wish you knew more about?
Honestly the parts of finance whose terms you hear bandied about a lot but few people outside the industry could actually explain: derivatives, structured products, short selling, quantitative trading, etc. Graduating into a global financial crisis so fundamentally impacted my generation, I think I want (at some point) to understand the inner-workings of an industry whose crash changed the world.
What’s your guilty pleasure purchase?
Because we weren’t often allowed this as kids: Ribena. I still get a little kick of happiness every time I buy it.
What’s your money secret?
Handbags. Buying classic designer pieces truly is an investment, not just an indulgence. The trade in second-hand and vintage designer accessories is flourishing, particularly with the establishment of sites like Vestiaire Collective or Rebelle. Classic styles really do keep (if not sometimes exceed) their original value over time, and you get the pleasure of their use in the interim.
Jessica Miller, Founder of Strela Advisory | Elizabeth Keates Photography
What does a typical ‘day in the life’ look like for you?
The beauty of investigations, I think, is that there is no “typical” day. At least for me, the variety is what I enjoy most.
The only part of my day in which I rigidly maintain a routine is my morning, it’s sacred. I need the Today Programme, coffee, and a run or walk around Hyde Park – the Serpentine and Long Water are so delightful in any season. Then, after a cappuccino from my favourite place on the way home, the working day can start. Feeling like I’ve achieved something for myself before 9am puts me in the right frame of mind for the rest of the day.
I was elected to the General Committee (similar to a board of directors) for the Reform Club in December 2020. This has become a bit of a second job as we pilot the institution through the latter stages of the (hopefully) final lockdown and the re-opening; this takes up a few of my evenings!
Who is your role model?
My first boss, Arianna Caldon. I learned an enormous amount from her. When I graduated, I moved to Padua (Italy) to intern for Arianna’s conference organisation business. She founded and owned the company, building it from scratch. We had an entirely female office, a proper matriarchy, and it functioned wonderfully. She expected us to work hard and to high standards, and she is one of the most impatient people I have ever met. But if you tried for her and gave your best, she was in return one of the most encouraging, generous, and rewarding people you could ever work for.
What are your top tips for staying grounded through the pandemic?
Setting a regular routine in lockdown became hugely important, as did getting outside every day, regardless of the weather. Also having certain fixed obligations in the diary, effectively anchor points for the week. I was lucky enough to be able to see my PT over lockdown, and I also have weekly Russian and Arabic classes – all of which gave me fixed breaks from work, and different ways of engaging my body and brain. Other than that, good books to read, and checking in with friends and family regularly. I started Sunday evening “words with friends” games against my mum over Zoom!
What’s next for you?
Moscow and Dubai (I hope!). I want to grow Strela into the investigative equivalent of a multi-family office, and build out the two parallel practices in Disputes & Asset Recovery, and Private Client. They require slightly different expertise but nonetheless coordinate beautifully. I also need a group of “Strela Ambassadors” out in the world, well-placed individuals who are referrers of work.
Top 5 Instagram accounts to follow?
Website: Strela advisory
linkedin Jessica Miller | Strela advisory
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recommended reading and listening?
Reading: 1000 Ships (Natalie Haynes), The Kremlin School of Negotiation (Igor Ryzov), and Judas: The Troubling History of the Renegade Apostle (Peter Stanford)
Listening to: Liza II Beirut and Hotel Costes Top 50 playlists – I’m a little nostalgic for the days of travel, glamour, and cocktail bars – but remain hopeful for their swift return!