there was no exit clause.Which meant we were going to have to work at it harder.” The result – let’s call it an ongoing process – both sides can talk about with enthusiasm, about even better handling of waste and ‘good clean lines of recycling’ with confidence. His are not just the skills of a man who spent a lifetime in corporate business and, once retired, looked for ways of replacing a lost sense of self-importance. “I had a career with American Airlines and was based primarily at Heathrow. I was its international division purchasing manager, responsible for all purchasing outside of North and South America. And I was facilities manager for all UK buildings during that period. Then came 2002,” he recalls. That was the year the economic impact of the Twin Towers on long-haul American flights resulted in a swath of redundancies in his sector. “I was 49, without a job and still with large mortgage payments and minimum redundancy payment. It was a horrible position to be in. I vowed there and then I would only ever work for myself again,” said Mr Cook, at the time a father of two, now also a father to two stepchildren." And so began an unusual turn into the then-super popular, but niche market, for dolls houses and associated items – which followed a spell writing articles for aviation magazines. In 2008, the emerging internet and influx of cheaper Chinese alternatives to his own hand-made items
saw him shut up shop. And then came business number two.
“I decided to become a vending machine supplier to businesses and began working the M4 corridor from Reading to Brentford, ending up with 400-plus customers and made enough money to retire early in the end,” he said, admitting that the lessons of running your own business were stark. “You have to work bloody hard and it can be far more difficult doing it for yourself.To make it a success you have to forget holidays and sick days,” he added. His environmental credentials seem well suited to any new leader’s role at a county local authority. In July last year, Gloucester joined the county’s five other local authorities by declaring a climate emergency, aiming to become carbon neutral by 2050. It will mean serious choices for not just the city’s local government administration – but a culture change for many of its constituents too. Mr Cook is already discussing the future, which has included an idea to turn the hill covering the old Hempstead tip into a solar farm. For the son of two GPs, forced to attend Jesuit boarding school before escaping to a nearby grammar, where his self-admitted laziness almost led to his failure to gain satisfactory educational qualifications, his epiphany at the time, taught him that the only way to success is through hard work. And he intends to apply himself to making a success of it.We wish him well l
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