A NEW DAY WITH Leo Claydon

– CellMark has shown that diversity and strong ties between offices around the world will make a robust and flexible group of people. This office alone has a mixture of age groups and different specialties, where everyone is encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences to help each other out.

Discussing various topics with my colleagues, I find it very interesting to see other people’s views and gain knowledge and ideas through them. I know it is important to build connections with customers and suppliers, but I think it is equally important to get to know your colleagues. We can combine the energy of our younger team members with the experience of our senior colleagues – we have six people that have worked here for more than 20 years – and the future of this office is ours to make.

We are located in Shinjuku which is part of a terminal station. It is the busiest railway station in the world with over 3.5 million people using it every day. Although Tokyo is the third smallest prefecture in the country, it holds the largest population with 13 million people living here.

Tokyo is the political, financial and cultural center of Japan, and has a mixture of old and new together. You can have food from any cuisine from anywhere in the world. I assure you, it is nothing like what you would find in Europe or the Americas.

I love travelling and would like to travel more if I had the choice. Visiting new places, encountering other cultures and listening to different sounds and languages – not many experiences can compete with that. I feel that by putting myself into an environment which is totally different from my usual life, I can reset my mind and feel very relaxed. So I always have to make sure that the places I go to are Japanese free!

Returning from a trip somewhere always reminds me how important home is to me. My family is the reason for anything I do. We have a little daughter and in my spare time I like to put her in a baby carrier and go out with her on my back. We will typically go to a park, enjoy our time together and have lunch there. It might not seem like much but these little moments make me very happy.