Ian Williams knows how to live.
He joined Campbell Dallas when he brought a Perth-based team of fellow accountants to the growing Glasgow-based partnership in 2003.
But it could have been much different when, in 1980, he was diagnosed with a potentially lethal form of testicular cancer.
But 30 years later, he is chairman of the busy practice which has a specialist oil and gas focus as well as its traditional landed and rural estates business.
“It was very unpleasant,” he said with a characteristic understatement.
“But I am quite a stubborn person. I felt sorry for myself for about ten minutes then thought ‘to hell with this, I’m not going to let it lick me’.”
He and his then-fiance – now his wife – had already planned to come to Scotland once he had finished his training.
“Professionally the work we were doing in Scotland was much more exciting than all the other offers I got.
“It is still the case now, he said.
Since he became “part of the brickwork” of Campbell Dallas, the company has grown to have 17 partners in the four Scottish cities including Perth and Stirling.
The firm is also part of UHY Hacker Young, an alliance of firms with offices throughout the UK which extends to a larger international network. Mr Williams heads up the international network’s International Energy Special Interest Group.
It was through this network that he met his business partner in a completely different field – winemaking.
His Houston-based colleague initially led a consortium of investors in a 500-acre vineyard in the foothills of the Andes in Mendoza, Argentina. “The wine is all branded AWI for ‘a wild idea’.
“It is a fun thing – we take about 100 bottles a year each. But I haven’t even tasted much of it – mostly they are in storage.”
He lives in Perth with his wife, who is an associate professor of medicine at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. They have a daughter, 13 acres and keep two highland cows – Effie and Blackie.
But work still drives him.
In May he will be back in Houston at the OTC energy event where UHI’s largest network firm is based.
“As Aberdeen is changing, it is moving away from exploration and production into the sale of specialist services.
“We have very strong relationships with Perth in Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, all the oil and gas areas. West Africa is a big deal now, and so is Ghana and Nigeria.”
Since coming to Scotland and joining Campbell Dallas, he hasn’t looked back.
“My partners are my friends. We all serve a common purpose, to have a good life, which we do.”