Ian Wotton

10:52am Tuesday 3rd June 2008

IAN WOTTON, managing director of the massively- expanding Redfern Travel in Marsden Park, Clifton Moor, really is a man of strange contrasts.

The 46-year-old adventurer is an oil exploring geophysicist who loves playing and watching rugby (plays for Selby RFC and coaches youngsters), and is someone with the chutzpah to set up his own business in the old Soviet Union then negotiate with the KGB He's a man who has built up his York business into one of the top three suppliers of corporate travel services to the British Government, sending officials all over the world; yet quietly hankering to anchor himself on a rhubarb farm...

And he's a family man who lives with his wife Sally and sons Finlay, ten, and Max, six, at Hillam, near Selby.

Ian's career began with Exxon, searching for oil in the Gulf, in Mexico, in the Persian Gulf and in Alaska before he changed career paths in the 1980s, helping to provide regeneration services from abroad for clothing factories in the old Soviet Union.

It meant importing experts and services - massively difficult under that regime which constantly refused entry visas. But he and his colleagues developed strong links with the KGB and a smoother path was cleared.

Armed with these experiences and contacts, Ian and two colleagues took advantage of the new Perestroika in the USSR under President Mikhail Gorbachev and set up Alpha Omega Travel, specialising in business travel to the Soviet Union, with an office based in Moscow's Lubianka.

One of the UK companies he dealt with was Redfern Travel - and it was so good that in 1999 he bought it.

Since then he has grown his York subsidiary by 60 per cent last year alone to a turnover of £14 million.

Lately, investment in new computer systems has resulted in a brace of new contracts worth more than £9 million - to provide travel arrangements for thousands of people in the National Audit Office and the Highways Agency.

"I suppose by the end of this year turnover will have increased to at least £24 million," he says.

The rhubarb farm? He smiles with the hint of a raised eyebrow. Many of his fellow rugby players are farmers.

"Have you ever been near rhubarb sheds in the amazing rhubarb triangle of Yorkshire? You can actually hear the creaks and groans of their rapid growth. It is quick and very profitable.

Which job (other than your own) would you like to have and why?
Rhubarb farmer. I think there's money to be made in farming if you know where to focus.

Greatest achievement?
I don't dwell on the past... but coaching my Selby U-10's to win the Doncaster RFU festival in April comes close.

Biggest mistake?
Not bringing in top-quality people sooner.

What makes you most angry?
Wasted time. Increasingly so with email "tennis" in which people constantly miscommunicate then clarify in vain.

It's made up work. What happened to talking with one another and showing people what is needed?

What makes you laugh?
I'm a cynic. I love people's tales of selfdeprecating experiences, especially if there is embarrassment.

What fools do you suffer least?
People in senior positions who are clearly incompetent and, in the UK that would be lots.

Whom do you most admire and why?
Tough one. Martin Johnson for singlehandedly dragging the Lions in South Africa, and England, to victory. Anyone who has won the Victoria Cross.

Branson for, well, being Branson - creating that lot almost by accident, getting good people around him early doors and still making money quickly.

What do you need to make life complete?
A rhubarb farm.

How do you relax?
Rugby Union - watching, playing, coaching, talking about it (over a jar or two of Timothy Taylor's).

Why do you make a difference?
I don't think I do. It's scarily flukey how the team around me just makes it all happen.

Name the organisation you see as the perfect one (not your own!) and why
I don't see one. There is always room for improvement.

Favourite record?
No favourites: My tastes change to suit the mood. Currently Guns n' Roses Sweet Child of Mine.

Favourite holiday destination?
No favourites, always changes. New Zealand would be somewhere I'd go to live. The Caribbean (Antigua, Barbados, Turks & Caicos Islands) are always safe bets. We love ski-ing in Arosa, Adelaide because no-one else goes there. Anywhere I can scuba dive, or anywhere the rugby tours take me.

Your epitaph
He never shirked a challenge, never ducked a duty.

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