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My secret? When in business, fire before you aim

How going up against the establishment made Lloyd Dorfman such a global success

April 14, 2016 11:18
14042016 Lloyd Dorfman in the Dorfman Theatre credit Catherine Ashmore copy

By

Sandy Rashty,

Sandy Rashty

6 min read

Lloyd Dorfman never had a long-term plan. By his own admission, he "just did" and things came through. Now worth an estimated £550 million, it is an attitude that obviously paid off for the self-made businessman and philanthropist.

But Dorfman, 63, founder of Travelex, the world's largest currency exchange business which marks its 40th anniversary this year, was not always one of the big players. As a young entrepreneur in a market dominated by large banks, he had to work seven days a week and persistently fight to re-open doors that were dismissively shut in his face. Despite being recognised for Travelex, of which he still owns a five per cent stake, Dorfman sees himself an entrepreneur, not a foreign exchange guru.

"People think I am a foreign exchange expert, but I am absolutely not," he says. "I am just a builder of businesses. It just so happened that I decided to build that business. One man asked me what I thought was going to happen to the pound in the next few weeks… like I knew," he laughs.

So was Dorfman - now chair of flexible office space company The Office Group and retail collection group Doddle - always ambitious, or just lucky? I have come to Dorfman's central London office to find out. He walks into one of the ground-floor meeting rooms, confident, 6ft 3in,bespectacled and warm, if a little suspicious: "You never know how an interview is going to come out or what the tone will be until the thing appears."