Describe what you do in less than 20 words.
Oversee – and sometimes contribute to – the editorial content of OPI.
Your first full-time job?
Working in the tax department of a local council when the government was trying to introduce the poll tax.
The worst job you’ve ever had?
See previous answer.
If you weren’t doing your present job, what job would you like to be doing?
Running a hotel in the south of France.
Your most embarrassing industry-related experience?
When I asked someone how her father was, when in fact it was her husband!
The daily task that you like the least?
Trying to turn blatant PR into some kind of news story.
The most annoying travel experience you’ve had while in the OP industry?
I once left all my notes at a show and had to take a taxi from the airport back to the venue to get them. When I got back to the airport, I realised that I had left my coat at the show as well!
Your favourite event on the OP circuit?
I don’t have one particular favourite, but I’m always amazed by the sheer scale of US events.
Your favourite office product?
An espresso coffee – that’s an office product now, isn’t it?
The biggest single issue affecting the OP industry over the next five years?
The fact that people will continue to buy fewer traditional office products and how manufacturers and resellers cope with this phenomenon.
The first record you bought?
This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello. The second was Wheels of Steel by Saxon. I was a confused teenager.
Your first car?
A Fiat 600 inherited from my grandmother… why couldn’t she have had an E-Type Jag?
Things you don’t like spending money on?
New mobile phones for my kids what seems like every few months, when the one they have works perfectly well.
What sports team do you support?
I’m a big fan of Derby County Football Club, because I was born in Derby.
If you had to sing at a karaoke next weekend, which song would you choose?
Embarrassingly, I never usually end up singing just one song at karaoke.
