An Interview with Nick Kelly

What do you do for Peregrine?

I'm a director at Peregrine Corporate Services and I'm responsible for the accounts preparation and tax compliance. I have a team of five staff who I manage alongside my co-director, Jamie McKenna - they are a great bunch of people.

What do you love most about your role?

The thing I love about the work I do, is the variety of clients we have. One minute you can be working on one client in a specific industry then the next minute, you can be working on something completely different. Over the years I've been working in the CSP industry, I've seen so many interesting businesses. I also enjoy hearing and learning about the jurisdictions our clients live in/do business in. I don't do an awful lot of travelling with my role but it's interesting all the same.

I think most important of all though, my team are undoubtable the best thing. We enjoy spending time together both inside and outside of work (although we haven't been able to do this at the moment!). Until the recent pandemic, we'd get together once a month and do an activity of someone's choice, taking it in turns to choose what we do - it helps the team bond and also help get to know each other a bit better. It has also been a big help when we've had someone new join our team.

How has your business adapted in light of COVID-19?

Fortunately a couple of years ago, we'd heavily invested in a computer system so that anyone of our staff could log-in remotely anywhere in the world and effectively work as if they were sat at their desk in the office. We have been very fortunate we're in that position. We are having regular Zoom calls (being careful not to get Zoom fatigue!) and Microsoft Teams calls to keep in good communication with everyone.

The team has adapted so well and we all seem to be coping - it's given everyone more flexibility for both their work and home life, and I hope this is helping them achieve a better work/life balance. While it has been a complete change, when things start resuming back to the "new normal", I hope we can continue to carry on adapting as well as we have done over the last few months!

Why did you join PCD?

A few years ago, David visited our offices in the Isle of Man when he was setting up the network. If I can be honest, I was a little bit sceptical that it would work but in fairness, he had all the right answers to any questions we had.

We attended the local event on the Isle of Man and we really enjoyed it so we started attending other ones further afield. We found the presentations informative and the networking/dinner part was good fun and we have always been seated with great people. The PCD team do a great job of putting relevant firms in contact with each other outside of their events which has been really beneficial to us. We recommend PCD to anyone we meet now!

Have you attended a PCD webinar? What did you think?

Yes a few of us have already. David has taken his natural flair for TV interview style discussion from the networking events to the webinars with great effect. I would recommend attending them if you haven't already.

My top tip for working from home is...

Take the time to pick up your phone and be social with your team because it will help you as much as it helps them. It stops the day being monotonous and one continual slog, and it should help you focus a bit more.

On a weekend, I am most likely found...

Relaxing in the conservatory listening to music with my family, pretending to be in the sun but avoiding the risk of sunburn, which given the weather lately, this is happening quite frequently!

Peregrine Corporate Services Limited is licensed by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority.