What was your first ever job? Working for NatWest in the City - my school said I should have a 'proper' career. Give us a quick run down on your career to date After banking and a short career in retail sales, I started as a field representative with Express Creameries selling cheese and dairy products into C&C and wholesale. They wouldn't promote me into national accounts so I left for what turned out to be only 18 months at Smedley's selling chilled salads and frozen veg. I moved on to what started as Freshbake but via Campbells became the Albert Fisher Group. Fourteen years there took me from NAM to marketing director to MD. I then got the job as MD at Ardo UK. What part has luck played in your career? A great deal - you can work hard but sometimes, unless your boss moves on, the promotion is not there. But you make your own luck. What was the best decision you have made in your career and why? To move into national account sales and deal with big retailers - where the action is. What is the most important piece of information you have ever been told? If you are the boss then 'too little knowledge is dangerous'. What would you change in the industry? The stock market - it drives people to work against their natural instincts. What is the most rewarding part of your job? Seeing the small plans knit together to become the big plan and giving advice that people value. What is the least rewarding part? Employment law. If you could start your career again, what would you do differently? I would gain an MBA and work abroad for a few years. I would then have a much better perspective on the world. What do you like doing when you are not working? Socialising at the pub, fishing, golfing and going to France (and speaking French with a terrible accent). Spending time with my son Jamie and daughter Charlotte and sharing everything with my wife Amanda. Are you good at managing work/life balance? From Monday to Wednesday, yes! Where do you hope to be in five years time? Living in a chateau in France with a carp lake and a good bar nearby.