John Best

Name: John Best
Position: National accounts manager
Company: Andrew Porter Limited

What did you want to be when growing up?
I always had a passion for art and wanted to go into graphic design.

What was your first wage packet and how did you spend it?
Blimey, that was long time ago now. My first proper wage packet was £35 I think, when I started work in the shipping industry. I can’t remember what I spent it on. Going out, probably.

What does your day-to-day work involve?
Andrew Porter Limited is creating huge growth at the moment in our business relocation services division and so most of my day is focused towards developing sales, either with current clients or by generating meetings and attending presentations with new ones.
I also spend a lot of my time involved in operations, helping to plan large scale relocation projects for many of our public sector clients, along with specialist project management which is often needed for professional services customers such as law or banking clients who require incredibly robust sequential packing services for files and confidential data.
Other time is spent on tenders and networking - particularly these days through social network sites.

How do you unwind?
Very simply, by enjoying family time with my wife and daughter. Because of the work pressures and the hours worked these days, family time is incredibly precious.

Describe your dream, no expense spared day out:
This would have to be Monaco for the Formula One Grand Prix. My wife and I are keen followers of F1 and have been to GP in the past. We’ve never done Monaco though, primarily because of the price. We priced it a couple of years ago and we were looking at around £5,000 each for three days, taking in the race tickets, hotel, restaurants and tickets to the F1 ball! We’d love to do it though, and have promised it to ourselves one day.

Who is your all time hero?
My father. He gave up so much for us as kids, worked incredibly hard all of his life and then got told he had months to live the week he retired. I’ll always be in debt to him for the chance he created for me in life.

What is your favourite piece of advice?
I don’t give advice - you are better off looking after yourself and making your own decisions about life. Everyone is different so it would be wrong of me to try and bestow on others advice about how
I run my life. The only thing I would say is never to have any regrets. That’s not advice, just common sense.