While most people today are racking their brains for a dot-com idea or looking to switch into the dynamic arena of technology, Tony Isaac left the world of telecoms at GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT) for the less glamorous world of industrial chemicals at BOC.

Now that the UK-based group is being broken up and swallowed by a Franco-American dynamic duo - Air Liquide and Air Products & Chemicals respectively - just as the company is turning the corner, does the 58-year-old have any regrets?