Terry Read: What I learned from Jimmy Goldsmith

Terry Read defied funding issues and a brutal recession to steer his recruitment start-up to profits. And having sold the business to listed recruiter Hays, he's not done yet.

Terry Read, 70, learned a lot about entrepreneurship in his very first job working for British tycoon Sir James Goldsmith in the 1960s. "Jimmy was a real character. You were never quite sure if you would get paid at the end of the month."

At Goldsmith's Cavenham Foods, Read "did a bit of everything". But by 1970 he was ready to go it alone. "The recruitment industry was just getting started. I had helped recruit some people for Cavenham and thought it seemed like a growing industry."

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.