Alex Cooper left the City to enlist in the army. Now he’s back as CEO of his own AI company Electric Twin. He tells us why in Square Mile and Me

CV

• Name: Alex Cooper
• Job title: CEO/founder of Electric Twin
• Previous roles: Derivatives trader; soldier; director of Mass Testing; COO
• Age: 48
• Born: Sheffield
• Lives: London in week, Monmouthshire at the weekends
• Studied: Oxford and SOAS
• Talents: Crisis response and leadership
• Motto: It’s the fastest who gets paid
• Biggest perk of the job? Working with amazing people
• Coffee order: Black
• Cocktail order: Michelada
• Favourite book: The Old Man and the Sea

What was your first job?

As teenagers, a friend and I demolished an old pig shed that the owner needed clearing before building work. We did it for free but then flogged the bricks to a reclamation yard for a few hundred pounds. It felt like a fortune at the time.

What was your first role in the City?

Back in 1999, I was a trainee trader on a........

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