Internet payments boss Carl-Olav Scheible is a rarity among businessmen in the
UK – he has a high opinion of our public transport system.
“We are based in Richmond and once or twice a week I’ll go into London for
meetings, by tube and train, and if I’m going anywhere else I’ll take public
transport because it is very accessible, “ said Scheible. “Given the size of
the city and the coverage of the track, the tube system is very impressive.
It’s not always the most comfortable on a hot, sweaty day, but the best way
to get about is by public transport.”
Scheible, 42, is the UK managing director of PayPal,
the online payments service owned by eBay.
He has 70 people in the UK working directly for him, and they are supported
by a further 1,000 in the company’s Dublin office and around 30 in other
offices in Europe. He travels to the company’s Luxembourg headquarters and
to the Dublin offices once a month, to continental Europe once a month and
the United States at least every quarter.
Don’t you get frustrated by train delays?
Everyone talks about the efficiency of German trains, but in the UK the
services are very frequent and the delays haven’t really been a big problem
for me. I’m from Norway, where people are really dependent on their cars,
but I would rather not drive because you can work and read on the train and
it is just more convenient.
But is there a big company car in the background?
No! I have an eight-year-old VW Sharan and I never use my car for work – my
wife uses it. I live in Wimbledon and I cycle to the offices in all
weathers. There are three reasons why we don’t use the car much: the cost,
the damage it does to the environment and the health benefits of using a
bicycle.
Do you get scared riding in London?
Yes, there are lots of lunatics out there – the lunatics are the ones in the
cars! I’ve been doing it for three years, it takes about 25 minutes, and I’m
still here to tell the tale.
What about trips to Europe?
I book all the flights online. We have an agency, Carlson
Wagonlit, which we use for the larger trips, but for the short trips I
tend to do the booking myself. I go direct to the airline websites
themselves and often get the best rates for British
Airways, bmi or Aer
Lingus. Of course we go economy on the short flights.
What about the no-frills airlines?
