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After 28 years in investment banks — JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital, and Deutsche Bank — New Zealander Rob Priestley, 53, went through a free retraining program by the social enterprise Well Grounded and took on the position of head barista at the law firm Fieldfisher in London. Now, he is already planning to open his own café.
A transition between two worlds that rarely intersect: after 28 years in top-tier investment banks like JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital, and Deutsche Bank, New Zealander Rob Priestley, 53, took on the position of head barista at the law firm Fieldfisher in central London. According to his account published by the British press in June 2026, the change materialized in the first half of this year, after a free 12-week professional retraining program focused on the coffee sector.
The career redirection began in December 2025, when the position he held in the financial sector was eliminated, in line with the bank’s long-term strategy. During the relocation process, Priestley sent about 100 online applications — and ended up finding another path: he was selected among more than 200 candidates for the Well Grounded training, a social enterprise specializing in training baristas, completed the course with graduation at University College London, and subsequently received an offer from the hospitality company CH&Co, the program’s sponsor, to lead the coffee service at Fieldfisher. Today, with his new profession consolidated, he is already planning the next step: opening his own business in the sector.
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The free 12-week program that opened the new career
The gateway to the new profession appeared during his own job search. Browsing job sites, Priestley found an article about the training offered by Well Grounded, a social enterprise that offers free barista courses for adults out of the job market and uses the coffee sector as a tool for professional reintegration. “It stopped me in my tracks, as it immediately reminded me of my dream to open a café,” he said, about the moment he decided to apply.
The competition for a spot in the program highlighted the demand for this type of training: there were more than 200 candidates for the selection process, and Priestley was invited to the assessment day — the stage that determined his entry into the 12 weeks of training in specialty coffees.
The course turned out to be technically more intensive than the former executive anticipated. “I thought I knew how to differentiate a flat white from a latte,” he admitted, about the start of the classes. The program advanced through the technical elements of espresso — origin, roasting, and production — and covered the entire supply chain from bean to cup, the foundation of the professional barista’s craft.
The graduation took place at University College London and, near the end of the training, the students were interviewed by CH&Co, the hospitality company sponsoring the program, for positions in establishments spread across London. Upon returning from the completion ceremony, Priestley received by mail the offer for the position he holds today: head of baristas at the law firm Fieldfisher.
28 years in the City: JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank
Priestley’s previous career was built in the heart of the global financial system. He arrived in the UK in 1997 and began working in investment banking in 1998, attracted by a sector that, according to him, was in all the news and had no equivalent in New Zealand, his country of origin.
The resume built over nearly three decades passed through top-tier institutions: JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital, and finally, Deutsche Bank, where he remained for over 16 years. The analytical mindset and the taste for solving problems in a team, he says, were the skills that opened doors throughout the entire journey.
His personal life also took root in London during this period. It was while working that he met his wife, also a New Zealander and now a pediatric nutritionist at the NHS, the UK public health service, with whom he has two daughters, aged 12 and 14, who study in the north of the capital.
The cycle in the financial sector ended in December 2025, when his position was eliminated in a move aligned with the bank’s long-term strategy — the type of restructuring that has been reshaping the staff of major financial institutions in the City and placing experienced professionals before new career choices.
Reemployment and the lesson of the digital profile: about 100 online applications
The search for a new position showed Priestley how much the recruitment market had changed. The last time he had looked for a job was many years before, and his reading of the current scenario was straightforward: the online profile has come to weigh as much as professional experience in building a candidate’s so-called personal “brand.”
While evaluating alternatives, he sent about 100 online applications and maintained the same morning routine from his banking days — commuting by bicycle and early gym class — preserving the workday structure that always accompanied him in the City.
It was precisely during this search period that the Well Grounded announcement appeared on the screen. Instead of insisting only on positions identical to the one he held, Priestley opted for a route that the job market is increasingly familiar with: professional retraining for a completely different sector, with formal technical training and a direct bridge to employment.
Head of Baristas in a Law Firm with a View of the Thames
The current position is located on the top floor of Fieldfisher’s office in London, a space remodeled as a café area and event environment, overlooking the Thames — a setting that reflects the growing trend of large companies investing in in-house hospitality services as part of their office experience.
This is, in fact, the mechanism that sustains the job: corporate hospitality companies, like CH&Co, operate cafés and food services within law firms, banks, and corporate headquarters, creating a circuit of opportunities for baristas trained in programs like Well Grounded.
At the counter, the repertoire of the new profession is built client by client. Priestley highlights the daily contact with different people and the habit of memorizing each patron’s favorite coffee — the kind of personalized service that has become a quality standard in the specialty coffee segment and a service differentiator in the corporate environment.
From New Zealand to the Plan of Opening His Own Café
The interest in the world of coffee comes from afar. In his childhood in New Zealand, Priestley used to accompany his mother and grandmother to local tea rooms and cafés, social environments that marked his relationship with the product. “I always thought that one day I would love to open a café, but that was just a dream,” he said about the idea he carried for decades while the corporate routine took center stage.
Now, the scenario is different: with the technical training completed, the experience at the forefront of a corporate counter, and the knowledge of the bean-to-cup production chain, the project of opening his own café is no longer a distant idea and has entered the horizon as a business plan — the natural unfolding of the second career that began with free training.
The journey completes a circuit that interests any labor market analysis: the skills accumulated in nearly three decades in banking — analysis, discipline, problem-solving in teams, and client relationships — were transferred to an expanding service sector, with the social enterprise acting as a bridge between exiting one sector and entering another.
The case also illustrates a broader movement in major capitals: experienced professionals migrating from traditional industries to the hospitality and specialty coffee sector, which continues hiring in London, while free training programs, sponsored by companies in the sector, shorten the path between training and formal employment. Rob Priestley’s story, in this sense, serves less as an exception and more as a portrait of a requalification mechanism already operating on a scale.
And you, have you considered a professional requalification to change sectors? Do you think free training programs, sponsored by companies, should be more common for experienced professionals? Tell us in the comments and share this article with those following the job market.
Keywords: barista, professional requalification, coffee, London, job market
