Tell us about your background
I graduated with a BA (Hons) in Economics and an MBA at Strathclyde, and began my career in the Scotch Whisky Industry in logistics and marketing. After 12 years I moved into commercial aviation followed by business jets, and I still work in this field. I've visited over 70 countries and I'm still enjoying ticking off new ones, and I'm lucky to have lived in Glasgow, London, New York and Singapore. I've been a US citizen for five years and I currently have a home in Florida and an apartment in New York, which is where I mostly work, and I'm married with three children.
Why did you choose Strathclyde?
I was attracted to Strathclyde because of its good reputation and ideal location in the city centre. I had a good high school maths teacher, so I started off studying maths but later switched to Economics. Bizarrely, given how my life has turned out and all the travelling I've done, I also didn’t want to study too far from home!
Where are you now?
I'm currently Senior Vice President and General Manager USA and Asia Pacific Operations at Jet Aviation, a General Dynamics company, where I am responsible for driving the performance and successful growth of our US and APAC portfolio including the fleet of over 230 managed aircraft across 27 global locations with 2,500 staff. I spend a lot of my time on a plane, and my main office is in Teterboro Airport New Jersey, the busiest private jet airport in the world, but I try to make it home to Florida at the weekends if I am not travelling or in Asia.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
I tried to buy a certain company three times and finally succeeded - perseverance pays off!