I always get there early, it’s all about planning it right. If I’m going on a long flight, I’ll be there three hours before, so that I can go into the business lounge, fire up the laptop, relax, sort myself out and look around duty free.

What do you look for in a hotel?

I like a good standard of comfort and service. Then I’ll check out the wi-fi and see if it has a decent restaurant and is clean and tidy. Having a gym is a high priority and a pool is nice but it’s not essential. I like the Shangri-La hotels and and also Traders, which are in a number of cities in China.

What’s the most interesting place you’ve been to?

Some of the business experiences you get in Latin America are amazing. You can be met at an airport and whisked off in a government car to somewhere remote for a meeting and not have a clue where you are. It’s important to rely on your contacts for your own personal safety. Venezuela stands out because it is a totally alien culture. When you’ve got a few minutes at the end of the day, you have to think where you can walk out of the hotel that is going to be safe. I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Colombia, where there are a lot of police on the street, and you just get used to it. I was once stuck in an airport after an internal flight in Colombia and got caught in a monsoon. The flights were cancelled and I was in a tin shed of an airport getting wet. But I got coverage on the BlackBerry and stayed there for six hours doing some work, slowly getting soaked.

Have you had any unfortunate experiences?

I’ve been quite lucky, although I was once horribly ill on a flight from Peru to Colombia after eating some local food. I just about held it together and then when I arrived I had to recover in bed on the Sunday, which was my day off. But I do like to try local food and immerse myself in the local culture. We have a standing joke in our company about having a hospital bed in Beijing. We’ve had four or five people admitted to a hospital there with everything from food poisoning to suspected swine flu. They’ve all been put in the same ward and we suspect they’ve been in the same bed.

How do you travel around the UK?

Our headquarters is Derby and I travel to our service centre in Cambridge and our sister company in Heathrow. I drive a Mercedes C Class and usually travel by car because it is more flexible if I have to go to various locations. I’m usually up and out very early to miss the rush hour, but the problem is that everyone is at that game now. Certainly when you come back, the evening rush hour seems to go on forever.

What about using the train?

Sometimes I’ll travel by train down to Edgware and then jump on the tube to a meeting in London. Sitting in a traffic jam is frustrating but it’s equally frustrating to have to wait 40 minutes for a train. The train can be very expensive, but it also can be quite efficient because you can sit there and use a laptop. But I have been spoilt by going on high speed trains throughout Asia, which are very fast and highly efficient.