News

Chirag Shah

Age:30

Education: MEng manufacturing
Job Title: Founding Director, Trading Parts.com
Salary: Does not Pay himself. Might start to earn a salary in September or October.
Work rate: 50 - 110 hours a week.

Relaxation: Cycling socialising and going to the Jim. I enjoy traveling and if I get a weekend free I like to go somewhere like Paris.

Vehicles owned: Touchy subject had to sell his Porche Boxter recently to put the money in the business - but may be buy himself a new one at Christmas.

ALTHOUGH SHAH is and engineer he was working as a management consultant when he realized how internet procurement sites could accelerate process and reduce costs.

He and a friend set up a European internet procurement service to provide engineering components.

Working in the e-business gives engineers great opportunities at an early stage he says. Ten years experience is not a guaranteed advantage, and can sometimes constraint the way people think.

Shah says young people are more familiar with technology, and are quicker to spot the latest trends. He believes that if they can argument this with a relevant industry based background, they can exploit recent technological advances.

The e-business world is also more concerned with what people have achieved in their careers than with who they know, says Shah.

In Manufacturing, it is very difficult to understand what impact an individual has had on the success of a company - the technology world is fast, and so transparent that if someone is doing well you know it very quickly, he says.