Around 20 years ago I was but a raw, hungry Assistant Financial Controller who wanted to push on with my career.
Opportunities at the corporate Copthorne Hotels were limited and so, demonstrating the impatience of youth, I stepped up into a journey rich in variety and interest and have been fortunate to work at prestigious venues with a wide range of people and influences.
An encounter with farmers Martin and Herman Bond at St Mellion, Cornwall, set me on the road. They had earlier persuaded Jack Nicklaus to design their new championship golf course but now needed to turn the project around. It was here that I also met an eclectic mix of international Englishman, come honorary Aussie in the form of the hugely experienced Ken Hunt, now of Combe House and a friend and mentor to this day.
For something completely different, a fantastic learning experience with “the Americans”, in the form of Blackstone’s ownership of the Savoy Group. Their approach to adding value to a business brought me into contact with a formative group of like-minded colleagues, now friends, even though we have scattered across the UK.
The visionary entrepreneur Peter de Savary acquired and repositioned Bovey Castle to an international market and as it was sold on I set sail for the beautiful, but none the less challenging, waters of Dartmouth to join forces with the Kiwi international investor Richard Seton and his UK operations, who I now also count as a friend and mentor.
Somehow, amidst all this excitement, I found time to complete my studies, marry and have a wonderful son… who is demonstrating that he has the cricket genes in the blood and that the business of ‘Dad’s Taxi’ is alive and well.
Along the way I discovered golf, or rather that I discovered I was not destined to be a championship golfer, with divots flying and the ball dribbling nowhere… best stick to cricket! Food and good wine are a different story… and it has been known for ideas to be mooted and considered over a glass or two of red wine!
I take pride in now being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, knowing how much time and effort was involved, but also in how the organisation has moved “accounting” on from reporting results to developing finance professionals who are very much part of driving business performance forward today.
As well as granting me legendary Excel modelling status, my friends and colleagues have been known to refer to me as driven, thorough, persistent, determined, committed, patient and focused, as well as kindly suggesting that I have “the ability to visualise a problem in such a way as to formulate a solution, grasping the whole picture”. For me, I just take pride in what I do and want to do the best that I can, encouraging and developing people along the way so that they too can enrich their lives in the same way I have been able to grow mine.
It’s certainly not been boring!
Now for the next leg of this interesting journey…
David has a solid reputation as being honourable, hardworking and completely trustworthy with great integrity.Ken & Ruth Hunt, Proprietors
Combe House