Desert Island Discs: James Espey

Life was tough but sport was our salvation and I guess it gave me a sort of driving determination to make something of my life and fortunately I had a reasonably successful academic career.

My first song is when my mother came to visit me in Cape Town. She was living some 500 miles away and she took my brother and me to see 'Singing in the Rain' which I still love to this day.

On leaving school I went to Cape Town University to do a Bachelor of Commerce degree.  Money was very tight so I used to do all sorts of odd jobs to earn extra cash and again, being one of the poorer students in a perverse way, gave me the ambition to succeed and do as well, if not better than many of my fellow students. 

While wooing my wife and working there, a song that used to resonate a great deal with me was “Baker Street” by  Gerry Rafferty. Celia and I were married in 1981 and have two wonderful daughters. I then spent 4 happy years between 1982 and 1986 running the UK arm of IDV in Harlow Essex. It was a great hands-on experience after being in a strictly global marketing role.  

In my travels I started listening to classical music. I am a great lover of Pavarotti and therefore my next song will be “Nessum Dorma”.

Moving on, I then became a Non-Executive Director of a variety of companies, from Church Shoes to Fuller Smith & Turner-London Pride, to A.G. Barr- Irn Bru etc and also had a lot of fun no longer being part of a corporate machine but being an entrepreneur

I  helped start a software company called Mimecast, where I backed a 28 Year old with an exciting idea. I am a great believer in backing the future. Employ people brighter than yourself, support people who have promising ideas. I therefore helped them get established, we had the first Board meetings in my dining room and would you believe there are now 850 staff and last November it floated on the NASDAQ---symbol MIME  and is worth in the region of $1.4 billion.  Again, this took 15 years – the patience rule.

Separately from that, 9 years ago, my partner Tom and I decided to start our own whisky company, The Last Drop Distillers Limited “before there is no more”. That is our slogan. We sell tiny releases of unique, unusual liquor.  Again, swimming against the tide, doing something that has never been done before, we took a chance selling tiny parcels of rare Whiskies and Cognac. Indeed our smallest release was 32 bottles – crazy, not commercial – but we did it. We have just released a 70-year-old Cognac and our 1971 whisky, which is coming out in September has been voted the best Scotch whisky in the world. So we are a company selling exclusive rare, unusual brands which retail in the region of £3000 a bottle. That much you might say?  Yes, why not?  It is rare, old and superb, rather like a fine wine. If you are interested look up the website www.lastdropdistillerslimited.com.

We sold the company to Sazerac, the largest private distiller in the world, who are a US based company, in September of last year because they want our brand to be the pinnacle brand at the top of their portfolio selling rare Whiskies, Cognacs and who knows what other spirits.

So life is good but at 74 years young I am always looking to help people, work with people and recognise that it is brands that are built by people. Brands are not a notch on a stick. 

To conclude ---Companies must focus on people and employ the best people to give them the opportunity to achieve and create.  It is exciting for me to look back and see the number of young people I have mentored or employed who are in big jobs.  Which reminds me of my final thought “be nice to people on the way up because with a bit of luck they may remember you on the way down”. I am delighted to have a lot of friends now in their middle age, who were young people when I first employed them and in fact, ironically, when I first started my whisky company, have helped me.

If you have the perfect job, it is a balanced 4 legged table, which is as follows:

• Respect or better still, like the people you work with
• Add value and be seen to add value
• Have fun 
• and make a little money

My final song is by a little-known Detroit artist who became a big hit in South Africa on a tour in 1998—shortly after Nelson Mandela became President. All his songs offer great insights into life and I have chosen 'Sugar Man'.

And for my book? “Long Walk to Freedom”---Mandela’s biography of course.

Looking at the roller coaster of life, few people realise that mental health is one of the biggest issues facing our nation. Most problems start at school and in the UK there are 126 suicides a week. I have become a Patron and Trustee of the Shaw Mind Foundation.

This is the last major brand I will be committed to. We are very hands on and raised over 100,000 petition signatures to force the government to address the subject in schools. Further we, have set ourselves a ten-year goal to try and halve the suicide rate in this country. So do look at the website and if you have any ideas as to help please get in touch. This is my major personal challenge for my remaining active life .