A 31-year-old entrepreneur has moved to the island and is aiming to help to provide financial qualifications and greater leisure facilities.

Samuel Leach, originally from Kings Langley in Hertfordshire, moved to Kirk Michael in November.

Since moving, he has been in talks with University College Isle of Man (UCM) about providing the equivalent of a master’s qualification in trading.

He also has meetings lined up with the government about creating more leisure facilities, and community events for the island’s young people.

After securing an internship at C. Hoare & Co Private Bank while at university, Samuel started making a lot of money trading.

Following his success in trading he decided to set up his own company called Samuel and Co Trading, which develops algorithms that will help people trade in the financial markets.

He said: ‘We provide Ofqual accredited, which is the government examination body in the UK, level five and level seven diplomas in financial trading, which is equivalent to a master’s degree.

‘Over here, a large amount of the economy is based on financial activity, and I thought, a lot of people study on the island, and want to stay here, but in order to go get those qualifications, they have to go off island.

‘So I thought, why can’t we do a master’s degree equivalent on island, where those financial firms can increase employability here?

‘That’s something that I’m looking at.’

He added: ‘We are already an approved education centre, we’ve already got the right team in place, we’ve got the whole structure set up, we can just imprint it.’

Samuel is also director of a company called Security Elite, which provides security for celebrities.

This, he believes, makes him well-placed to help with organising concerts or festivals.

He said: ‘I think I have a broad skill-set and I’d say a young energy to hopefully disrupt the island in a healthy way and provide positive change for like-minded age groups.

‘I want to make a positive impact on what I think is an amazing place.’

He added: ‘I saw on the 10-year plan it was all about how can we keep people here, you know, and what do 30-year-olds or 20-year-olds like to do?

‘They want to go out, they want to go to the cinema, they want to go to social places.

‘Having that mindset and being that same age category, I think allows me to work in those opportunity windows.’

He added: ‘You could have a night festival or day festival, so we have all the resources for that, not just from a security point of view, but also we have all of the celebrity contacts to be able to invite over here, and talk to on a serious basis.

‘I look at the 10-year plan, and just think to myself I can help with that, I can help with that too.’

Samuel has a three-year-old child and said that he moved to the island for safety, for the more stable politics, and for the lower taxes.

He said: ‘My goal is if I can’t convince my son, who is three years old now, to stay on island, when he is my age, then I have done something wrong.’

If you have any ideas, Samuel would like to hear from you: [email protected]