In every issue of our Aycliffe Business magazine, we take a break and sit down with a different employee or business owner/leader to ask them 20 questions about a variety of subjects.
In our latest edition, Jacksons Law Firm managing partner Tony Wentworth answers our 20 questions over a cuppa…
1: What do you do?
A: I’m a solicitor and the managing partner of Jacksons Law Firm.
2: Who have you worked for in the past?
A: I’ve been with Jacksons since I graduated from university, so my previous job was as a restaurant pot washer and general dogsbody, whilst a student, 35 years ago.
3: Best part of your job?
A: The people that I work with and the satisfaction of seeing a difficult job for a client progressed through to a successful conclusion.
4: Is there anything about your job that you really don’t like?
A: The amount of administration required to deal with all of the compliance and regulatory obligations to which the legal profession is subject. I appreciate that it’s there for good reason, but it’s such a time-consuming chore.
5: Favourite thing about working in our region?
A: The amazing countryside that’s right on our doorstep. I enjoy doing a bit of MAMIL cycling and the cycling country around here is awesome.
6: Who’s your favourite Tweeter?
A: Tweetie Pie (a very poor attempt at a joke that will be totally lost on anyone not brought up on 1970’s Looney Tunes cartoons). Serious answer, I don’t really follow any Tweeters. There are a few podcasters that I follow, mostly sporting, such as “That Peter Crouch” and “Boro Breakdown”.
7: Four famous people you’d love to have round for dinner and why?
A: A dinner party should be fun, so I’d have Peter Kay, John Bishop, Sarah Millican and the incomparable Bob Mortimer: then I’d just sit back and listen.
8: If you could do something else in business, what would it be?
A: Football’s a business, isn’t it? In which case I’d be Middlesbrough and England’s first quinquagenarian centre forward (nb I had to Google the word for a person in his 50s).
9: Have you ever done anything really daring?
A: I was once shadowed by a terrifyingly big tiger shark whilst scuba diving off the coast of Australia. I was told afterwards that it was simply being curious, but to my mind the only thing that would stoke the curiosity of a shark is something that it thinks that it can eat.
10: What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?
A: Communicate. If people know what’s happening and understand the reasons why, they’re much more likely to pull with you than push against you.
11: If money was no object, what would be your ideal car?
A: James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5. I’d use the machine guns on all of those drivers who think that it’s OK to cut in right at the front of a long traffic queue.
12: Money no object, your dream holiday would be?
A: Travelling around the Polynesian Islands in the South Pacific. Paradise.
13: Do you have a favourite band or type of music?
A: I listen to all sorts of music from my era, which is the late 70s through to the early naughties. After that all music started to sound the same to me (and to think how exasperated I used to get when my dad used to say the same thing me)
14: What is your greatest achievement?
A: Raising my three children to be the wonderful, considerate young adults that they now are; although, to be fair, that’s far more their achievement than mine.
15: How would you best describe yourself in four words?
A: “Handsome, charismatic, revered, genius”: I was also going to add “fantasist”, but I’d used up all of my allocated words.
16: Where do you see yourself in five years?
A: Hopefully where I am now. I’ve had the very good fortune to spend 35 very happy and fulfilling years working with Jacksons, but there’s still so much left for us to do and so much more that we can achieve.
17: Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met?
A: It would probably be Tony Blair, but I was far more star struck when I met George Friend (iconic Middlesbrough full back, for those who don’t know).
18: Do you have any guilty pleasures?
A: There’s a Greggs just around the corner from our office. I have to forcefully ration myself to one visit per week (my Friday treat).