AS he started a stop-gap job as a placement officer while waiting to go work in Spain, David Jones never even dreamed that five years down the line he would be still there and managing the company.

David took up a temporary position at Medacs in Otley Street, Skipton, in 1995 and has moved up through the company at such a rate he has surprised even himself.

"It is interesting how opportunities get presented," he said.

David had travelled the world before he moved to Craven seven years ago to take advantage of the rock climbing and caving facilities. But he was offered a job teaching climbing in Spain, and joined Medacs until it was time to leave.

"I realised it was a company with big ambitions and I was surrounded by like minded people who wanted to see how much they could do," he said.

After six months as a placement officer for the medical recruitment company, he was promoted and began to recruit doctors from South Africa to work in this country.

The family owned business was sold to a London company in 1996.

David became manager of the South African operations and was later asked to undertake a project looking at long term contracts.

After three years, David, who once said he would never have an office job, was offered the position of general manager.

"About the middle of last year the boss was looking to do other things so it was then put to me that I become managing director. I was delighted with the new challenge," said David.

Now at 34 and without a university education, David is managing the company which is leading the way in doctors' recruitment in the UK.

He said that his main problem now was recruiting enough staff to keep up with the level of demand. "That is a good problem to have," said David.

He added that in the future he wanted to recruit two more teams of staff to develop the company into other areas of medical recruitment.

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