William Fall

William Fall wants to get one thing clear at the start of our interview. "This mustn't come across as the William Fall show. I have a very strong belief in teamwork." That may be so, but this is the People page and some biographical probing is in order. It soon becomes apparent that Fall's stress on collective endeavour is not for want of things to say about his own career, which has had intriguing twists and turns.

Born in 1957, Fall grew up in England on a farm outside Tunbridge Wells, Kent. His father was a farmer, his mother a doctor. "I had absolutely no interest in finance," he recalls. "I barely knew what a £5 note looked like." After school at Tonbridge, he went to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, to read veterinary medicine, and then spent 18 months working as a surgeon in a practice in Aylesbury.