CONTINUING OUR SERIES OF THE CITY’S RISING STARS, EMMA RAMIS MEETS ONE OF LONDON’S MOST UNCONVENTIONAL FUTURE BUSINESS LEADERS AND TECHNOLOGICAL VISIONARIES, ALEXANDER CAMERON.

Cameron is described as the world’s leading expert on IPTV, video on-demand and next generation entertainment and the creator of an internet-based global media system widely expected by those privy to the details to revolutionise TV viewing across the globe. With the ear of governments and their policymakers, senior executives enjoying his no-nonsense approach, Hollywood openly courting him and a growing following in the City picking up his gravy train, Cameron is that rare breed, a uniquely dynamic individual with a striking intelligence and insight beyond his years that has put him in demand all over the world. All at the tender age of 28.

I meet him in the fashionable Washington Hotel in Mayfair.

He lights a cigarette and smiles in a haze of grey smoke, piercing eyes flickering around the room, noticing every detail. He seems restless, irritated. Gentle smiles break through as he relaxes. His phone vibrates on and off endlessly.

Handsome, erudite and charismatic he is, extraordinarily so, with an unnerving and disarming telepathic stare that gives him a menacing edge. A natural crowd-puller at the box office of life’s stage, it’s very easy to see why he is held in reverence by those who have worked with him for having considerable powers of persuasion.

Does he find that his youth helps or hinders him? “I thought it would be a real disadvantage, but most of the people I deal with see energy, not naivety, as surprising as that may be. I try to tackle the issue head on, rather than let it be an uncomfortable sticking point”, he says, “and it can also be a very useful attack vector because no-one sees you coming.”

He speaks with eloquent infectious passion, with enormous force and compelling argument. His prescence is markedly debonair and intoxicating.

Being so young and having achieved so much, surely it must be difficult for friends to relate? Why aren’t there more young people doing the same? “I think so, and it can be very lonely sometimes. Luckily I’m blessed with friends who are used to humouring my madness”, he chuckles. “But the support just isn’t there. Nobody knows how to do it, or how to even begin to figure out how. The economics of daily life, like the debt and celebrity culture make it incredibly difficult.”

“The greatest challenge today is forming a clear path and direction for your life, “ he says, “and the importance of mentoring, vocational guidance and encouragement of ambition cannot be overstated in that process. Our generation is an active one that searches, rather than one that sits back and is passively directed. The pressures are greater, the need for initiative more relevant than it has ever been and the ground is less stable than it ever was before.”

But somewhere, somehow, he broke from the herd to follow his vision, so what started him on the road? “I simply decided who I wanted to be and changed the way I thought. Over time all of this evolved really.” He laughs heartily as I tell him he is unique. Was there a key event or turning point? “I think my time living in Africa helped enormously, and the death of my Grandmother Particularly the latter as I owe what I am to her. Both helped me to see the world was more than just a few square miles around me. I resolved to create a new world for myself and found my own purpose and mission. It’s an ongoing process and I try to keep learning every day.”

He reserves his most intense vitriol for the education system and what he sees as the “tedious futility” of middle management. “I hated school. Absolutely loathed it. We continue to promote this antiquated Victorian system that has failed millions and produced a nation of nine to five drones all doing something to pay the bills that is completely different to what they are actually passionate about. Brains stop being exercised after school and university. Passion is very good for the economy.”

“Nobody picked up on any of my natural instincts or qualities, or anybody else’s, and all the things I actually needed to know for life in the real world were seconded in favour of retarded academic nonsense that’s useless in helping you get anywhere.” Clearly I’d hit a nerve, but a smile breaks through as laughs philosophically. “But then again without that adversity I wouldn’t be here, now.”

But Cameron has also earned his fair share of detractors, one telecoms chief infamously going so far as to describe him as a “cold-blooded venomous snake with poisonous skin”. It’s difficult to reconcile the friendly character with the image of the evil caricature, but that, as they say, was possibly the best trick the devil ever pulled. He laughs it off flippantly, “well, I may just have broken some eggs in the process of making the omelette.”

Machiavelli would have been proud.

His acid tongue serves him well; indeed, putting down hecklers appears to be a welcome sport that he seems to relish. He credits his middle class Hampshire upbringing for his thick skin and finds strength in his religious faith, a subject that evokes a surprising quiet to his ever-accelerating verbal flow characteristically punctuated with swearwords.

Cameron clearly has an obvious talent for self-promotion, perhaps the nearest thing the business world has to a rock star. Imagine Gates with a touch of Camden punk, sunglasses, open shirt and a bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand, and you would be somewhere near. There is something of Churchill about him, an acerbic playful wit coupled with steely defiant determination.

He describes himself as a “liberal centrist malcontent with no predilection or tolerance for the right and left wings of party politics”. Does he see himself embarking on a political career? His reply is candid: “I think that’s been inevitable for a long time although I’m not quite at that stage as much as I want to be. Politics is a dirty business and I’m not sure if Westminster village is quite ready for my kind of honesty. I want to build a credible track record before I make that move.”

He gives you the impression very quickly that he certainly would be a breath of fresh air in the circles of power. But what would be on his agenda for the first day on the job? “A massive package of incentives to stimulate small business. Tax marijuana. Roll back the Big Brother state. Shut down all the money-draining quangos. Use the army to reform the prison system. Replace the Lords with a Senate. I’d also like someone to explain to me exactly why anyone needs a licence to get married or perform music.”

As we approach the end of our time together, I enquire as to what he thinks will be the legacy of his generation and his greatest achievement. What advice would he pass on? “I believe it will be one of exponential human communication as the Internet brings us all closer together than ever before, “ he says, because, “it is what drives innovation, collaboration and enriches culture.” Extraordinary words from someone so young. Fortune indeed favours the young and bold.

And as for his own achievement and advice to others. “For me it will be being a good father, because everything else I do is a duty rather than an endeavour. When we are finished the world is going to look like a very different place. My advice would be simple. Find your voice, design your life, commit to being unstoppable and fear nothing.”

If only his Grandmother could hear him now.

EMMA RAMIS was speaking with Alexander Cameron. “IPTV/VoD: The Open 4th Platform” will be available in bookstores from June 2007. WSJ.