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Theo de Pencier loves his job as chief executive of
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the FTA, but if he had a youthful dream it was to be a rugby union international.
He wasn't bad he played in the front row for Newcastle University, where he studied economics and politics although he now says modestly that he was "never good enough to play to international level, but you can have your dreams''.
While he was at Newcastle he was being paid a modest sum by Tube investments, a company he worked for during the university holidays and for a year after he left. Initially his career plan did not include the FTA, or even transport. There was no family tradition: his Canadian father was in the army, his Dutch mother an academic. So instead he started off by "selling beans and soups for Heinz", where he specialised in marketing. He admits that he still stops to look at the soup shelves in supermarkets to see how the product lines are developing.
De Fender then met Jack Mather, at that time the chief executive of NFC, and soon found himself working for the company, with "marketing as my way in". He went on to become a vice-president at Danzas and chief executive of Bibby's Distribution in 1999. This summer he became chief executive of the FTA, a post he hopes to hold for 7-10 years "if they still want me".