How old are you?
Still in my 30s
What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
Relationship Manager for Triodos Bank, lending to renewable energy projects across the UK.
How long have been doing this?
Five years
What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
Working for a bank where the credibility of the people and organisations you’re lending to is more important than growth targets alone is a privilege. Not all renewable energy projects are a good thing; particularly those reliant on intensive farming techniques. I’m encouraged to explore the issues that concern me. Fortunately, there’s also plenty of commercial opportunities in wind and hydro as these industries continue to flourish.
What’s the best bit about your job?
Working in a specialist, and relatively complex, area that’s in demand and experiencing dramatic growth - even if the talk about renewable energy industry is often disproportionate to the action on the ground.
What’s the worst thing?
It’s predominantly desk based, and the sector is shifting more into the corporate environment.
What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Busy. There’s been a lot of lending to a whole range of interesting projects from small to larger scale developments.
What were you doing before this?
I was a disillusioned high street banker.
What was your very first full-time job?
Wide-eyed, naïve high street banker.
What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
Get a wide breadth of experience in areas that interest you and then ask yourself again what you really want to do. It may be this, or it may not. There could be some interesting distractions en route - often the richer your experience, the more rewarding your employment when you settle on a particular line of work.
Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
There are a number of interesting projects that should come together in 2008, but they’re confidential so I can’t share them.
What do you do to relax?
Read, run, cycle and enjoy the children.
Who do you live with?
My wife and two children
Whereabouts do you live?
In easy reach of the centre of Bristol and open countryside.
If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
Make local figure, George Ferguson, mayor of Bristol.
As cheap and easily available oil is expect to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
The car. You didn’t ask what would be fuelling it!
Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
Yes. We’re all paradoxical – especially those who say they are not.
What have you done that you were most proud of?
I once played in the world unicycle hockey championships.
Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
There isn’t any one individual, but for the purposes of this interview Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for his uncompromising commitment to seasonal, ethically produced food.
What’s your website address?
www.triodos.co.uk
What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.cyclingnews.com
www.howies.co.uk
www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/sw/bristol_forecast_weather.html
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