Cherry Professional

As an introduction can you give us a potted history on you and your company please?
I was born in Leeds and grew up in Lancashire. I'm a Chartered Accountant and I qualified with a medium sized firm in Manchester.

I have lived in Nottingham for about 15 years and originally came to the East Midlands to work for Rolls Royce Plc. I worked for the business for about 4 years in Internal Audit and line finance type roles.

I have now been with Capital One for just over 10 years and joined in 1999 which means I am in my third decade which is fairly scary stuff!

Capital One arrived in the UK in 1996 and we opened our head office in Nottingham at the beginning of 1998. Nottingham still remains our home but we have a small office in London.

We primarily offer credit cards these days although we have done other things in the past. We are owned by one of the top 10 US banks (Capital One Financial) and our business model is based on providing credit cards which are tailored to a range of different customer segments and risk profiles.

2009 was a tough year for most businesses, what were the major issues affecting your business and how did you handle these?
As Capital One is part of a global bank, we and our US parent have had a very challenging period.

Factors like unemployment and house prices have an impact on the credit worthiness of potential customers and therefore our decision to lend or not lend to people.
These factors also impact our existing customers. For example, they may have trouble paying back the money they have borrowed and could be in financial difficulty. This leads to a rise in credit losses as you would have seen from any credit card lender.

The way in which we are funded is a key driver on our ability to lend money. Capital One is a pretty robust bank in the US.

Our cautious and well managed approach has meant that we have weathered the storm and are in a good place for 2010.

Did you lend any less money as a result?
Yes, that was one of the reactions across the whole of the industry.

How many people are employed in Nottingham now?
There are about 800 permanent staff in Nottingham.

What are the major challenges facing your business this year?
The economy, in terms of how it impacts on our existing customers and how we feel about new customers is the most important thing.

We expect 2010 to see a lot of regulatory change. We continually focus on this and make sure we are managing it effectively. A change of government may also lead to further regulations.

What are your current thoughts on the state of the economy and views on what will happen over the next 12 months?
In the near term things are better than we would have expected them to be. GDP is slightly better than forecast, unemployment is not as high as expected (I think the forecast was to get to 10% or so and obviously it's still just below 8%). House prices are stable and retail sales are staying up so those things are favourable in the short term.

I think there is more uncertainty about the long term and what happens post the election. There is a lot of inflation in the economy and that creates a risk, interest rates will go up quicker and there has also been a lot of public sector employment, creation. There is a concern that this is unsustainable and ultimately the Government will have to cut back, creating more unemployment and more challenge. So short term feeling pretty positive but long term I'm not sure.

How do you think the East Midlands is faring as a region compared to the UK as a whole?
That is an interesting question. As we lend nationally we don't really have a lot of insight into that.

What could the East Midlands do better?
If I talk about Nottingham - better transport links to London. Capital One has a number of people who travel to the capital by train for business. I would like to see more investment in faster trains, similar to the Grantham to London line which takes 1 hour 20 minutes.

What do you do outside of work / what makes you tick?
My family - I have one son, Oliver aged 6, so I try and spend as much time with them as I can, but most probably not as much as my wife would like! Last year I did the London Marathon in 4hrs 21 mins, so I try and keep fit. I've signed up to the London Triathalon this year. It's an Olympic distance which sounds more impressive 1,500m swim, 40k bike ride and 10k run. I am trying to get fit for that! I will have to swim at Holme Pierrepont or the lake at Colwick Park as open water training as it's in the Docks in London!

I watch a lot of football, a Blackburn fan but I don't get to Ewood Park very often, my son is a Forest fan - sorry to say that Martin I know you are a Notts County fan!

I like to get challenged all the time, working with a great group of people - I get a constant challenge at work, that's what makes me want to stay after 11 years. I like progression as well, over the years at Capital One I've progressed from Internal Audit Manager to CFO!

If you hadn't followed your current career path what would you have done?
I think I was always destined to be an Accountant - I was good at counting money when I was a kid! I would have liked to have been a professional sports player but I've got no talent whatsoever! Maybe a fighter pilot?