1. What was your first job?

The first job I did was collecting rubbish at age 18. I was a garbage man for the company that my father worked for.

2. What parts of your job keep you awake at night?

I do wake up [thinking about] the things I should have done. There is much to do and so little time to do it in. My big problem is time management so I am forever making lists. I will sometimes wake up in the night thinking, ‘oh my God I didn’t do that’. So I got to keeping pen and paper next to my bed because what is even worse is to go back to sleep and wake up in the morning and think, ‘what was it I was worrying about in the middle of the night? I can’t remember’.

3. Who has had the biggest impact on your career and why?

I’m not going to name them, but first of all my history teacher at school who made history come alive for me and in particular economic history and the history of the industrial revolution in Europe. My history teacher between the ages of 13 and 18 was an extraordinary inspiration to the origin of my real interest in how economic processes build wealth in societies, why it happens differently in different places and what one can learn to in effect participate to change the outcomes.

At university my professor of development economics – who was a historian of the industrialisation of Japan and India in the 19th and early 20th centuries – was extraordinary and again he drew out and fed my interests and created that curiosity.

And then during my career there have been three people I worked for who trusted me, who challenged me, who pushed me to do more, who weren’t particularly gentle and who were great coaches and real believers.

4. What is the best professional advice you’ve ever received?

It was at a time when markets were going crazy… [and] a friend and banking advisor [told me]: “This isn’t going to continue so if you are going to sell, sell now”. [I sold the business and] it was the best decision I ever made.

5. The top reasons why you have been successful in business?

Curiosity [and] open-mindedness. I think if in your career you ever get to a point where you are simply earning a salary by doing what you have always done – which is in effect boring – then why bother? I think you should be always learning. For me working with the extraordinarily strong and professional group like [eastern Africa-focused private equity firm] Catalyst Principal Partners I learn huge amounts. I visit businesses, I get to talk to them about their markets, their customers, their involvement with government, [and] their philosophies across a broad range. I am incredibly privileged to be able to do these things.

6. Where’s the best place to prepare for leadership? Business school or on the job?

I think on the job every time. But business school gets the doors open and gives you breadth of networks.

7. How do you relax?

Some people would say I never relax. I relax with family and friends. I try and get some exercise. I love walking in the countryside and Kenya has got some wonderful places to walk. I think walking safaris are fantastic and I have had memorable walks in Mount Kenya and Karura Forest. It’s a shame that places like Karura Forest, which is really special, is too expensive for the masses. One of the glories of London, which is my hometown, is the parks. I walk as much as I can in the city. In Nairobi low income people are forced to walk, but walking along the side of the road in Kenya is not that much a pleasure. What would I do if I could rule the world? I would build pavements in Kenya and I would create more parks for everyone in the country.

8. By what time in the morning do you like to be at your desk?

I am usually at my desk by 9am.

9. Your favourite job interview question?

I ask them what their ambitions are and why those ambitious would be served by coming to work for [the company] I am interviewing for.

10. What is your message to Africa’s aspiring business leaders and entrepreneurs?

The only limit of what you can achieve is your own imagination.

Andrew Reicher is chairman of the investment committee at Kenya-based private equity firm Catalyst Principal Partners. The eastern Africa-focused fund invests between $5m and $20m in high-growth, mid-sized and emerging companies. Reicher is also chairman of renewable energy fund, Berkeley Energy Africa. He is a veteran in private equity and investment banking with over two decades experience in emerging markets. He was previously the chief investment officer at UK development finance institution CDC Group, and head of the first Africa Infrastructure Fund at emerging market private equity group Actis.