Banker who followed his heart…

When Lachlan Campbell found himself working 20-hour days to get his new Hong Kong bakery off the ground, it was not quite the lifestyle he had envisioned when he gave up a lucrative banking career.

"When I first started I had no staff. I got in at six and did all the baking before trying to open at 10.30am. I could not get it done," said the 41-year-old.

"I was working 20-22 hours a day, it was insane. My wife came in, my 13-year-old niece came in. A buddy was in town from San Francisco – he was behind the counter for two days during his holiday.

"I would be here at six in the morning; stay through until three or four in the morning; go home, eat breakfast, shower; maybe sleep an hour and then I would come back."

But despite the brutal schedule, Campbell never doubted that switching career to set up his firm, Babycakes, was the right move.

"One of the big factors behind why I gave up banking was less travel and more time at home with my kids – right now I have even less time with them, although that is starting to change," said Campbell, who describes himself as Chief Cupcake Officer on his business cards. "But go back to banking? No way."

Campbell opened his new venture in January, but he had been plotting every detail for years, from the retro, 1950s decor to the child-sized sink, front door and even toilet that sit alongside the adult-sized versions.

It was the same meticulous analysis he used when assessing distressed debt opportunities in the region, he said.

He visited more than 50 coffee shops and cake stores in the US and his home country of Canada for ideas after giving up his job at Deutsche Bank in early 2007. But his biggest challenge was learning to bake cupcakes, and refine the recipe for Asia's particular palette.

His muse was 67-year-old master baker Marda Stoliar, who specialises in teaching newcomers.

Campbell flew to her home in Oregon for weeks of study, before flying her to Hong Kong so she could assess his set-up. In all it cost him around $85,000 (Dh312,221). "She taught me not just how to put it into a batter, into a cup and into a pan, but also how to professionalise it, scale this stuff up," he said.

"How can you bake 3,000 to 6,000 cakes a day out of my kitchen and still maintain the quality when one day it is five degrees and 40 per cent humid and on another it is 35 degrees and 98 per cent?"

Campbell then embarked on developing his own buttercream recipe to suit his Asian target audience. His 12-cupcake range now includes the Yin and Yang, a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. "Ours stays soft for days, it is a true Italian buttercream. They are beautiful," he said.

Babycakes is based in a shopping mall in Ap Lei Chau, where people can pop in to buy cakes and drinks. However, from the kitchen – the centre of the operation – Campbell also takes delivery orders for anywhere from banks to corporate clients and individuals for parties.

Campbell was born in Vancouver but grew up in Alberta, where his father was a professor of education and his mother a teacher.
After graduating from the University of British Columbia with a degree in economics he qualified as an auditor before heading to Hong Kong in 1995 where he hoped to make the switch to investment banking.

After sleeping on sofas, having doors closed at many banks and being forced to take an audit job, he found a job at Income Partners.

He worked in fixed income, assessing companies in trouble and working out if they could be saved with the right investment.

He helped swell the business, before embarking on the familiar pattern of hopping between major firms, attracted by bigger salaries and bonuses.

But he was restless and headed to Hollywood to try to use his financial knowledge to get into the film industry. However, family demands led him back to Hong Kong – and banking – in 2004. His new job – as head of fixed income for Asia and the Middle East in private banking at Deutsche – was to sell super-rich individuals financial products, but he was already yearning for another adventure. "If you do not sell, you do not get a bonus. I just said at the end of the day this is not where I want to be," he said.

Rami Hayek, Campbell's ex-boss at Deutsche Bank, said his former colleague's meticulous approach was the perfect attribute for his new venture. "He was a total perfectionist – he loves details," said Hayek.

"People who used to work with him cannot believe he has done it, it takes a lot of guts to give up the pay cheque. He has got the admiration and respect of his peer group," Hayek said.

Despite initial exhaustion at the crippling hours – Campbell was struck down with a fever and had to close for five days to recover – his ambition is far from a quiet, semi-retirement venture.

He is already expanding into two more malls across Hong Kong, taking on new staff, and has eyes on franchising across Asia.

But does he ever long for a return to a testosterone-filled investment bank?

"I don't miss it. Ever. I don't even think about it, except how can I get hold of my friends to buy cakes for their floor," he said.