Each week Bristol Business News gives a prominent member of the city’s business community the last word on its weekly e-bulletin. This week Oliver Jones, head of sales & marketing at National Friendly, answers our 10 questions.
What was the LAST: 
Film you watched? With three daughters, that has to be Sing 2! Family days out at the cinema are a regular thing for us, we love the escapism and the kids love a good film.
Book you read? It was probably George’s Marvellous Medicine to my girls at bedtime. You can see a pattern here; the girls take precedence!
Music you bought/downloaded? That was the Frozen 2 soundtrack. My eldest daughter loved the film and loved the music, so it was an obvious choice for her sixth birthday.
Concert or play you went to? With three girls under the age of six, pretty much all of what we do is family oriented. The kids are a huge and enjoyable part of my life, so we went to see Beauty and the Beast at The Bristol Hippodrome. We are very lucky to have an institution as great as the Hippodrome on our doorstep.
Sporting event you attended? I’m a lifelong Leicester fan, so I of course I leapt at the chance to see my beloved Foxes when they were playing away at Southampton. I’ll never forget the result, Leicester City beat Southampton 9-0 away. A fantastic day.
Holiday you went on? Grabbing quality time off with my wife takes quite a bit of planning with the girls being so young, but we did have a lovely long weekend in Lisbon recently. The food and ambience were magical.
Restaurant you ate in? I like to support local restaurants and we are all big fans of Indian cuisine, so I often take my family to the Indian restaurant in my hometown Burnham on Sea, The Chandni.
Thing that annoyed you? When my daughters take my work iPad out of my briefcase without me knowing!!
Thing that made you laugh out loud? My sales team at National Friendly are good fun and very sociable. We always have great weekly catch-up meetings on Mondays and these usually start with poking fun about the weekend’s sports results, who has won, who has lost, who did well and not so well. As a group, we are all very into our sports, both summer and winter.
Piece of good advice you were given? I have a few on this one, but the three that stick are “It is better to seek the cause rather than criticise the action”, “Your last mistake is your best teacher” and “What you resist persists.”
Oliver Jones is head of sales & marketing at National Friendly, the Bristol-based health and protection insurer. Established in 1868, National Friendly today specialises in private medical insurance, guaranteed life assurance, assisted living insurance, savings and investments. It recently launched an ‘accident only’ simplified income protection offering and announced a partnership with HealthHero across a range of products. It is a founding member of Children’s Hospice South West’s Business Club, having chosen CHSW as its charity of the year in 2020.
