Les Wheatley, Commercial Director, The Protector Group

Mar 15 2010 By Andrew Hebden, The Journal

Former Newcastle United finance director Les Wheatley has returned to the North East to spearhead an expansion drive at security business The Protector Group. He tells Andrew Hebden about a career that has taken him from Britain’s biggest bus company to a famous night in Istanbul - via an infamous court case.

The Questionnaire

What’s your favourite book?
As a proud dad it would have to be my daughter’s first academic book; Michael Hanneke’s Cinema – The Ethic of the Image. By Catherine Wheatley.

What was the last album you bought?
The Beatles collection remastered. What else for a Merseysider whose teen years were in the 60s?

What’s your ideal job, other than the one you’ve got?
Have to be a professional rugby player. Although all my playing days were very much in the amateur age.

If you had a talking parrot, what’s the first thing you would teach it to say?
Smile.

What’s your greatest fear?
Something horrible happening to my family that I couldn’t sort out.

What’s the best piece of business advice you have ever received?
I have developed most of my business style from team sports rather than business itself.
On that basis it would have to be the one a number claim credit for: "The more I practise, the luckier I get."

And the worst?
Rule by fear.

What’s your poison?
Simple tastes, a pint or a nice glass of wine dependent on who I am with and where I am.

What newspapers do you read, other than The Journal?
The Times and the Sunday Times.

How much was your first pay packet and what was it for?
My first pay packet was for about £15 and was holiday work in a Co-op Dairy milk bottling plant.

How do you keep fit?
Pass.

What’s your most irritating habit?
Never letting a subject drop, verging on the sarcastic.

What’s your biggest extravagance?
Holidays.

Which historical or fictional character do you most identify with or admire?
It would have to be someone creative but light-hearted. Walt Disney brings a smile to most people’s face.

Which four famous people would you most like to dine with?
This would have to be a musical night with a quartet of famous singer- songwriters talking about and playing some of their best songs. Elton John, Neil Sedaka, Carol King and Stevie Wonder.

How would you like to be remembered?
With a nice drink and a few funny stories about times past.