John Brackenbury For someone who claims to be 'winding down', John Brackenbury appears to have rather a lot on. The 66 year-old licensed trade and leisure industry guru is currently a director of 10 companies including Holsten UK, Western Wines and SFI Group, chairs Business in Sport and Leisure, the Hospitality Training Foundation and Active Media Capital and is a council member of the Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association. Add to this his work for the Springboard careers promotion charity and his day-job as deputy chairman of Pubmaster and you see before you a man who is having the time of his life redefining winding down. "I have actually slowed down from about 110 mph to 90 mph" he tells me, when we meet in his homely, cluttered office in London's fashionable Sloane Square. Modern communication methods enable him to work part of the time from his recently-acquired second home near Draguignan in the south of France, to where he flies, economically, by easyJet, since meeting the airline's CEO, Ray Webster, at a breakfast hosted by the Prime Minister. John Brackenbury, you quickly gather, is very well-connected. He's no name dropper, but it's clear that there are few people at senior levels in government, industry and society with whom he is unfamiliar. His avuncular, slightly professor-ish demeanour belies a entrepreneurial sharpness that would put business leaders half his age to shame, a valuable asset when dealing, as he does, with secretaries of state, ministers and others at the very pinnacle of achievement. And achievement is something with which Brackenbury is familiar. A farmer's son from deepest Suffolk, his career in the drinks and leisure sector began when, in 1955, he failed the medical for the then compulsory national military service - "which just shows you how bloody old I am!" he says with a grin. He had been whiling away the time at wine company Justerini & Brooks, where his father knew the boss, in the role of tea-boy and stamp-licker. "I couldn't take up my university place for two years, because I had reckoned on that length of time in the Army" he remembers, "so when I failed the medical, I asked J & B if I could stay and learn about the wine trade." A mere two years later, at the tender age of 21, the ambitious Brackenbury was appointed to the board of J & B, and its subsidiary Corney and Barrow, as head wine buyer. His career flourished and when, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company became International Distillers and Vintners (IDV), Brackenbury was the natural choice to head it. He also managed IDV's joint ventures with brewers Watney Mann, which included venture capital operation Leisure Finance and Marriott Watney International, which provided the giant hotel operator with its initial shift into Europe. "Leisure Finance's first investments" he says "were for the Roux brothers to open Le Gavroche and 'Billy's Baked Potato' for George Walker." Walker was to become a greater part of Brackenbury's life later when, following the hostile takeover of IDV by Grand Metropolitan in 1972 - "we only lost by 90,000 shares" - and several years creating and acquiring leisure businesses, he joined G. & W. Walker as CEO. Once the company became Brent Walker, Brackenbury went on the acquisition trail, buying over 350 pubs from Grand Met, which were to form the basis of what is now the 3,200-strong, all-tenanted Pubmaster chain, which Brackenbury acquired by MBO in 1996, following the demise of Brent Walker. "There were 17 other parties interested in the pubs" he says, "but we won!" He stood down as chairman in March this year, passing the reins to CEO John Sands, and is, in his new position with the company, responsible for dealings with trade organisations and government. "There is plenty of room for tenanted and managed houses" he says, "but each requires totally different skills. Pubmaster tenants are entrepreneurs and we have central departments such as marketing and purchasing which advise them on improving performance which, in turn, improves our own performance." Perhaps Brackenbury's most visible industry role is as chairman of Business in Sport and Leisure (BISL). "We're not a trade organisation" he says, firmly, "but, rather, a ginger group, established to represent its members to national and local government." Whatever you call it - and BISL's chief executive Brigid Simmonds prefers the term 'umbrella organisation' or 'lobby group' - the concern has grown its membership from 13 companies at inception in 1992 to over 100 ten years later. "If you join our operating-company members together, they are worth over £40 billion on the London Stock Exchange!" Brackenbury recalls "I felt it was about time for the industry to stand up and be counted, so I got together with some like-minded individuals like John Conlan of First Leisure Corporation and Harm Tegelaars of Cannons and we formed Business In Sport. Five years later, I realised that it was taking up a great deal of my time and that I really had other full-time and, indeed, paid jobs to do! I knew Brigid Simmonds, who was working for one of our members, the architects Sargant and Potiriadis, and offered her the post of chief executive." "We're proud of our record" he says. "Have we made a difference? I think we have, in a number of areas such as the national minimum wage, planning, PP3, liquor licensing reform, gaming reform and also Sunday dancing - we spent 6 or 7 years at that one! Government respects us and sees us as terriers, who refuse give up!" With a diverse operators' membership that ranges from Whitbread and S & N to First Leisure, Six Continents and Kunick and member consultants such as Royal Bank of Scotland, KPMG, the Amateur Swimming Association and Tibbatts Associates, BISL is nothing if not multi-faceted. At the recent 10th anniversary dinner, almost 200 people packed a baking-hot room at London's Savoy Hotel to celebrate BISL's success. "[Minister for Sport] Dick Caborn was there, along with six top officials from various government departments, which was a great tribute to our work", Brackenbury says with pride. Awarded the CBE in June 2000 for services to tourism, education and employment, Brackenbury has firm views on job creation and training in leisure and hospitality. "My aim is to ensure clear career-path recognition for the industry" he says, "with people going from NVQ Level One to the equivalent of chartered institute status." He rebuffs suggestions that the industry does too little to encourage young people to join up, saying "We shouldn't be too harsh on ourselves about training and recruitment. Leisure and hospitality currently employs 2.3 million people, against about a million 10 years ago - we must be doing something right!" Throughout our chat, the 'phone rings. Brackenbury is clearly a busy man. "I'm not a guru or an elder statesman" he protests when I mention both terms. "I prefer 'experienced entrepreneur'! I've been around a bit, been fortunate, and thoroughly enjoyed it all." John Conlan, now chair of superbar group Urbium, is glowing in his praise of Brackenbury's qualities: "Apart from John's vast experience of the hospitality sector, he has a unique tenacity and the capacity to get things done. He has a sharp business brain and a toughness in commercial affairs, yet he has a great charm which endears him to all of us." One of the calls was from the architect working on Brackenbury's house in France, where he has an olive farm. "I'm going back to my roots, as a farmer" he says, wryly. Somehow, I think not! Brigid on Brackenbury "I am an admirer. He's like a fantastic, benevolent uncle. I've learned from him much of what I know about how businesses work and given me some good career development advice. He's hugely supportive and always available. And he thoroughly deserved his CBE. " "John has extraordinary stamina and excellent contacts - he can go out to breakfast, lunch and dinner on the same day! He's allowed me to do things that a lot of chairmen wouldn't, like my directorships of Leicester City Football Club and Sport England and allows me a great deal of autonomy."