"I should really be in there", says Karl Robinson, managing director of Mistral Internet, the Brighton-based internet service provider (ISP).

He glances into a glass-fronted office where a meeting is in progress. The body language around the table suggests it could be important.

"Don't worry," he reassures me, adding: "It's a £500,000 account we are trying to wrap up but I think they can manage without me."

He's not joking either, and mentions a household name travel company but asks me to keep hush-hush until the deal has been completed.

Karl has an easy-going, almost casual confidence and today he can be forgiven for having a spring in his step.

It might be a clich but, on paper at least, Mistral is going from strength to strength.

The sales team, he tells me, has just secured a clutch of contracts worth in excess of £1 million, a company record.

Earlier this year Mistral was named Best Hosting Provider at the Internet Service Provider Association Awards for the second year running.

Last year Karl picked up the Company of the Year trophy on behalf of his staff at the Sussex Business Awards. In the same year, Mistral was listed in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 table.

I wonder if this success weighs heavily on Karl's shoulders?

He says: "Yes. It puts the pressure on. Expectations rise and you must not let standards slip . . . but it is great in terms of PR.

"People always think we are a bigger company than we are because of the national and local Press coverage.

"That's not always a good thing but it helps in terms of getting people's interest in the first place."

The company, which had eight staff when Karl joined as the sole salesperson in May 2000, now employs 85 staff and has offices in Cardiff, Cambridge and Southampton.

Karl's progress through the ranks at Mistral has been as rapid as the company's expansion.

He says: "It has been a whirlwind. I was quite happy to work my way up the company ladder in sales but soon found myself in charge of six and then eight people, almost accidentally.

"We were one of the first ISPs to offer broadband and when that took off we had to recruit people quickly just to meet demand and I was the only person there to train them up.

"It meant I developed a close relationship with the owner at the time, who used to confide in me and consult with me whenever any key decisions were being taken.

"When he got tired of working, he needed somebody to take over the role of managing director.

"He advertised for the job but, in the end, was reluctant to pass control to an outsider."

Karl has little formal IT training - a degree module in spreadsheets and word - but has learnt all the lingo in the four years he has been here and sounds clued-up.

He says: "I have this ability to soak up information, retain it, and then regurgitate it. I'm very lucky in that respect."

Karl grew up in Douglas on the Isle of Man, leaving when he was 18 to study marketing and French at Lancaster University.

He says: "I didn't know what I wanted to do when I graduated, just that I didn't want to go back to the Isle of Man and get sucked into off-shore banking."

A move to Horsham started a chain of events that eventually led him to Mistral.

After a short stint with Eurobell "planning when and where the company should dig up roads to install its cables" he stumbled into information technology almost by accident.

The promise of a laptop, company car and a mobile phone was too tempting for someone fresh out of university and he joined Brighton-based Rocc computers.

After 18 months there, by which time the internet was booming, he joined PSI Net, commuting from his home in Brighton to London. When the time came to move on, Mistral's founder Steve Spink offered him the sales job he held until becoming managing director in 2002.

Karl's post-graduate desire to distance himself from his birthplace has softened over the years and he can now foresee a time when he will move back to the island.

His wife Urszula, whom he married last summer, is expecting their first child in nine weeks.

He says: "I am convinced we will have a girl and I expect it will change everything, although I am fortunate in not having to work very long hours.

"The art of good management is effective delegation really."

Friday May 21, 2004