Graeme Jenkins, national corporate sales manager, Maserati GB

What has been your biggest achievement in your current role?
Despite having only recently joined the company, I’m happy to have started to make inroads into launching Maserati’s first diesel into the contract hire and leasing market.

Who has had the biggest influence on your career?
My late father and myself –one has to take responsibility for one’s actions.

What is your dream holiday?
The Maldives – complete relaxation.

Who was the last person you received a text message from?
An unsolicited insurance company.

What is your favourite sitcom?
Fawlty Towers. I admire its humour and sarcasm; John Cleese was the master!

What is your favourite film?
Shawshank Redemption. The ultimate lesson in perseverance.

You are on a desert island – what three things do you take with you?
A process for turning salt water into fresh water, a boat to get away in and Aladdin’s lamp for three wishes!

When was the last time you took public transport and where were you going?
Last week, to central London by rail for an industry function.

What is your best childhood memory?
Spending time with my mother, who unfortunately passed away when I was six years old.

If you won the lottery, what would be the first thing you would buy and why?
Properties for my adult children. It is what I would have loved to have had when I was a young adult.

What is your favourite book?  
Nightrunners of Bengal. Amazingly, it got me through my English literature exams at college.

Your favourite dish at a restaurant?
Paella. It reminds me of vacations in the Spanish Caribbean and Mexico.

What was your biggest mistake in business and what did you learn from it?
Learning in my early years that I have two ears and one mouth – use them in that proportion!

What would you say is your guilty pleasure?  
Long haul holidays. I have to have one every year without exception, even after changing house and career in the same year.

How would you describe your leadership style?
Open door and motivational, while not tolerating fools lightly.

What is the first thing you would do if you were made Prime Minister for the day?
Reinvent our budgets and priorities, giving more resource to the MoD, health service and education, while speeding up the benefit reforms and making them completely tangible and auditable.

Who was your childhood hero and why?  
Captain Kirk. My older brother was a massive Trekkie.

Which historical character do you most identify with?  
Richard the Lionheart.

What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?  
Take your time.

What is the one object you couldn’t live without?
Sadly, my phone.

If you could work in another profession what would it be?
Hotel management – in the Caribbean!

What’s your least favourite food?
Swede.

Which superhero from comics would you most like to be and why?
Thor, because I like the idea of throwing an all-powerful hammer around.

What is your dream car?
It is, genuinely, a Maserati GranCabrio (even before I joined Maserati!).

What has been the pivotal moment in your life?  
There are five of them – the birth of each of my children.

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