Businessman

I once termed my sense of dress as 'urban farmer' and that became a perennial source of bullying from my friends, particularly my brother.

My father is someone I've always looked up to as the ultimate example of chivalry and humility, and someone who's just deeply kind and empathetic and selfless.

I'm a bit of a dynamite fisherman when it comes to cooking as I don't have the patience, but I am a huge foodie.

I'm a bit of a vault of secrets. I'm a victim of English reserve, which is slightly in contrast to how I communicate when I auction.

Unfortunately, chivalry seems to be on the decline, but let's hope that manners can remain important. I, for one, will certainly be an evangelist with it.

I remember being led to a shed by my father for the unveiling of a beautiful bicycle, equipped with stabilizers, on Christmas Day. I must have been four or five and realized that this was my first ride into independence.

I'm the son of a doctor, and the key to working in the art world is to have boundaries of discretion.

My brother and I have always had a great interest in people and building relationships. I probably have my parents to thank for that.

I was a rather tubby youngster, which was a complete surprise to my family.

We want as best as possible to encourage emerging talent and galleries by their inclusion on Paddle8. Our exhibitions help bring interesting new works on the platform. We have to be agnostic in that respect and the galleries themselves have complete carte blanche as far as what they include on the site.

Auctions typically are an opportunity for you to be able to acquire what you're looking for at a lower price; typically, the auctioneer sets the opening price at much lower than the retail price and certain interest develops and as more people come in it drives the price up.

I respect people's privacy.

Our gutsy view of the world is that with time, there will be three auction houses: two serving the upper end of the market and Paddle8, serving the middle market.

There is such opacity within the art market. There's also an abundance of fraud and misrepresented goods, which leads to mistrust between buyers and sellers.

If you're trying to learn how to collect art, the key is getting access to insider opinions, and we pride ourselves on working with the most relevant artists and the collectors with the most authoritative voices.

Our generation has become somewhat stripped of identity by the homogenizing effect of technology. So, more than ever, people want to project their own individuality.

I was given a life-size iron sculpture of a heron by a godparent. It was so poorly made, that it looked more like a pterodactyl and was so unbalanced that it would continue to topple over and create huge divots in my bedroom floor with its sharp beak.

In Europe, there is a lower instance of startups because there's a permanent fear of failure. Everyone fears failure because it is this permanent black mark against your name, whereas in the U.S., failure seems to be par for the course.

There is a heavy leaning to try and extract information from me, and I always have to clamp down.