Martin Green has been unveiled as the new chief executive of Hull's City of Culture 2017 company. Angus Young meets the man who, as head of ceremonies, organised the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Chief executives are not usually unveiled wearing a casual white shirt, jeans and sporting a pair of shiny black Dr Marten boots. But, then again, Martin Green isn't your typical company boss.
The new man at the helm of Hull's UK City of Culture 2017 team ponders over his outfit as we meet while Mail photographer Jack Harland snaps away.
"You know there's always a time in life when you wonder whether you are dressing a bit too young. Perhaps now is that time," he muses.
Still on the same theme, the 42-year-old reflects on a recent show he produced in Budapest.
"I was there surrounded by 500 skateboarding teenagers. It was another one of those moments."
He's certainly packed a lot into his relatively short career. His impressive CV ranges from orchestrating events for the Mayor of London's office to producing the opening ceremony for this summer's Tour de France Grand Depart in Yorkshire.
Inbetween there was the small matter of being head of ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and leading the team behind the torch relays for both events.
He's now looking forward to his next challenge in delivering a year-long festival of culture in Hull.
"First and foremost I'm very excited at the prospect of leading the 2017 team," says Mr Green. "Delivering big cultural events is what I do so on a professional level this is a dream job for me.
"Although I have worked on some very big projects, I have also looked ahead to the next challenge and this fits the bill perfectly. When I got a call asking whether I would like to put my name forward I said 'yes' almost immediately because I felt it made sense.
"I have always believed very passionately in the City of Culture concept, right back to when Liverpool and Glasgow were European Cities of Culture. When I heard Hull was bidding for 2017 I knew it was exactly the right place for the next one."
His knowledge is Hull comes from friendships he struck up during a year studying for an MA at the University of Leeds. Those friends now live in Hull and he has visited them regularly over the years. He has also worked closely with East Yorkshire-based lighting designer Durham Marenghi on most of his recent major projects.
"I have always had a great time when I've been to Hull so on a personal level it's also the right move for me," says Mr Green. "I'm going to move here and will be looking for a place to live."
He will officially start his new £130,000-a-year job in October but admits he will deliberately keep a low profile for the first few months.
"The good thing is that we are not coming at this from a standing start," he says. "Hull has already done a brilliant job at winning the City of Culture bid. The bid itself, including that wonderful film, was a masterclass in how to do it properly.
"However, once I'm here permanently I want to go quiet for a little bit. It's probably not in my nature but it is exactly the right thing to do in terms of getting the right team together, looking at what we need to do and working out how we are going to achieve it. Once we get all that in place we can start talking about the fun things, but I really believe in getting the basics right from the start."
Even so, he is expecting a roller-coaster ride over the next couple of years.
"There will be highs and there will be lows as there is with anything on this scale," he says. "After the Olympics I took four months off just to try to understand and appreciate what had happened in the previous five years.
"When you are in the middle of something like that you don't have the time to enjoy it because it's full-on work.
"Hopefully with 2017 I can enjoy it a bit more while it's all going on.
"The good thing is that we can learn from Derry's experience last year but also build on what Hull already does culturally which is pretty fantastic."
He's looking forward to visiting Saturday's Humber Street Sesh festival and will return in September to soak up the atmosphere of the Freedom Festival for the first time.
"Hull has already demonstrated that it is committed to culture," he said. "It's shown it's open to staging big public festivals.
"My job now is to understand the city more, find out what excites people and make sure everyone gets something out of being the City of Culture."
