A chance meeting in Baghdad led to a new business career now blossoming in Dubai for a former British paratrooper.

Lt Col (Retd.) John R W Pullinger, OBE, was working in difficult conditions in Baghdad's Green Zone when former members of Britain's SAS, then working with a private security company, introduced him to a furniture salesman who was to have a big influence on his life.

That salesman was president of Home Essentials Chris Exline. Home Essentials is the world's largest furniture leasing company outside the US.

Pullinger, who went on to become managing director of infrastructure at the company's Dubai office, recalled the circumstances which brought them together in a talk to members of the British Business Group for Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

Addressing the BBG's monthly luncheon meeting at the Shangri-la Hotel Dubai, Pullinger described how Exline made the most of business opportunities despite the difficult circumstances he found himself in when he arrived in Iraq to sell furniture shortly after the coalition forces seized Baghdad.

He managed to win his first contract of many after just 24 hours in what Pullinger dubs the 'ultimate cold call'.

'When he arrived in the Green Zone there was no sewerage system or electricity, and we had to lie on the marble floors of the villas and palaces to keep cool. Chris's success under such circumstances could be described as the ultimate example of salesmanship and cold-calling,' he recalled.

Pullinger is currently working on a project to build accommodation parks providing affordable housing close to major industrial areas for workers in Muscat, Oman.

Home Essentials, which has other regional offices in Baghdad, Oman and Qatar, also specialises in the provision of furniture for hotels, residential tower blocks, serviced apartments and office blocks.

The BBG holds around 70 networking events, forums and seminars each year and is widely recognised as one of the largest and most active business groups in the Gulf.Trade Arabia News Service