Jim Slater

Author Slater's autobiography sets out his early plans and visions regarding company acquisitions, and describes the processes he employed to bring them about. Once companies came under his control his strategy was to maximise the return on those of their assets that he judged disposable—be they property, plant or workforce. These tactics proved to be highly successful and profitable in the short-term, such that "Slater Walker" became a byword for a particularly forceful and financially rewarding form of capitalism.

The acquisition and disposal of company assets in this manner became known as "asset stripping", a phrase term that carries with it connotations of hardship and distress associated with the human costs of unemployment. Some years later, Slater acknowledged and defended engaging in the practices he adopted, towards the end of an interview with Hunter Davies in The Independent published on 15 December 1992.

Slater was also the author of a book on investment, The Zulu Principle, which focuses on simple techniques for identifying small dynamic growth companies whose shares are at a low price compared to their future prospects. With Hemmington Scott, he devised a monthly company statistical guide, Company REFS, also available as a daily online service, to make the identification of such shares easier for the private investor. Slater authored several other investment books, and had a side career as a children's author, writing the A. Mazing Monsters series.

Media He was featured in the second episode of The Mayfair Set, a series of documentaries by Adam Curtis.

Personal life Slater married his wife Helen in 1965. They lived in Surrey and had four children and ten grandchildren.

Slater's hobby was chess. Amongst other sponsorships, he donated $125,000 to help fund the 1972 World Chess Championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in Reykjavík, Iceland, doubling the total prize fund.

Slater died on 18 November 2015 at the age of 86.