Richard Btesh

Director, Chess

Career so far Working in corporate finance, I worked on more than 100 transactions including listed company work. I was also into speciality mergers and acquisitions. I am currently a director of Chess where I lead corporate strategic development and M&A activity resulting in growth from £3m to £30m in the past five years.

Do you care about green IT? Very much and have invested in this sector on a personal basis.

If you could be in a rock/pop band, which one would it be and who would you be? Anyone of the Eagles for the great California lifestyle. What are we all doing here?

What is the best corporate jolly you have ever been on/taken partners on? The only ones worth recalling are skiing trips.

Has 2009 been as bad as everyone said it would be? Not for Chess or on a personal level. However, we are far from out of the current economic problems.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? I maintain my prediction that the debt overhang will cause a long drawn-out difficult period. House prices and share prices remain too high and come back to me next year for more predictions.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2010? Adapting, as ever and acting as a consolidator rather than being acquired as economies of scale come into play.

What is the best part of your day? I make variety my main activity and consequently there should be no room for boredom.