Switching gears at The Peninsula Hong Kong

Martin Oxley [Photo/Courtesy of The Peninsula Hotels]

Oxley's office in the quiet elegance of The Peninsula is a world (and a lifetime) away from his humble beginnings as an apprentice mechanic with Rolls-Royce in the 1970s, when he quickly decided that spending his life "covered in oil" underneath cars was not for him.

In his subsequent 22-year career with the world's most prestigious carmaker, Oxley created a unit that specialised in finding the slightest pre-delivery defects, developing an eye for detail that made him the ideal choice to manage The Peninsula's car fleet when he joined the company in 1995.

He works closely with group chairman Michael Kadoorie, who Oxley says has shown an uncanny knack over the years for identifying the small details that can make a big difference. Oxley likes to tell the story of a visit they made to the Rolls-Royce factory, when Kadoorie asked if they could sit in a car in the pitch dark. "He said he wanted to read a newspaper and had spotted that the map light switch wasn't illuminated. I thought, 'He doesn't miss a trick!'"