‘I love living in England - but I still miss watching the ice hockey’

Murray Diamond began working for Lockheed Martin as a cost accountant in Montreal back in 1984. His first role was looking after the figures on a frigate programme for the Canadian navy.

In 1999 he and his family made the move to the UK when he was appointed chief financial officer of Lockheed Martin’s UK operation.

He explains: ‘The programme in Canada had included helicopters and Lockheed Martin UK had won a big contract to build Merlin helicopters for the Royal Navy.

‘I first came over here on a three-year assignment, which then turned into five years. I thought ‘’holy mackerel, I wasn’t planning on that!’’.

But he quickly grew to love life in this country and now has joint British and Canadian citizenship. Today Murray, 64, is still CFO and lives in Titchfield with wife Karen and their pet rabbit Crayons (pictured right).

In 1999 there were 50-60 Americans who had come over to work for Lockheed Martin UK and Murray was the only Canadian.

He remembers being made to feel very welcome in this country.

‘We were allowed to vote before becoming British because we were members of the Commonwealth and the Queen was our head of state. I felt so honoured by that.

‘People have also been so friendly. Once they know you they will always help you out.’

So how has the company changed in his time at CFO? ‘When I first got here there was primarily the large Merlin contract, but today we have many other diverse programmes serving the Ministry of Defence, the Royal Navy and the Army.

‘The spectrum is much wider than it was and that has made the job more interesting.’

He adds: ‘I still consider myself new, although I’ve been here 22 years now.

‘I do still miss parts of Canada, but we’re lucky there’s so much to see and do where we live.

‘I miss the ability to go skiing at the weekend and I miss watching the Montreal Canadians - although there’s another Canadian who works in finance now so we can talk about the ice hockey!’