Robert Santiago heads a team of nine researchers and administrators. At the moment FT Research Centre has around 350 clients for whom it does bespoke research, plus it provides ad hoc research work to clients worldwide through its website FT.com.

While, as you may expect, around two thirds of clients are in financial services, Santiago says that more are coming from different walks of life.

It's difficult to pinpoint a typical assignment, apart from the fact that it all centres around business research including work for TV production companies and PR agencies.

The FT Research Centre prides itself on adding value. Santiago says: "The way that we operate is that we look at the information that is in the public domain and then we combine it with the information in people's heads. We interview key people in the sector and we have access to FT journalists. Our view is that what is printed is out of date."

Like so many in the information professional world, Santiago drifted into the profession. A couple of decades ago, he was an actor doing off Broadway work. He is a little reticent to talk about that part of his life (something to do with how he would be viewed by his fellow professionals, can you understand that?), he said: "I did do a few pieces back in the US."

In an audition for a movie, Santiago as a non-equity actor lost out to an equity guy. "I decided enough was enough and that I wanted to know where my paycheck was coming from."

The paycheck came from the world of information. He went to an agency and they found him a clerical job and he has worked up from there in a variety of areas including the financial sector for major investment banks and in the law sector. "I've been lucky enough to work with kind people."

The accent may still be American but it seems Santiago feels England is home. He first moved to the UK to help set up Disclosure, moved back to the US for a year and then in the late 1980s returned to London. "I love London as a city; the way that people work hard and play hard."

Santiago says that one of the reasons he likes this profession is "because of the way that we have to constantly reinvent ourselves". From data retrieval to value added, Santiago has been at the centre of the changes that have besieged the industry.

And now he is witnessing at first hand the most recent trend - outsourcing research. He says: "The latest craze is for outsourcing business research. I like being in a place where I can influence and change attitudes."

How outsourcing by the profession as a whole remains to be seen, but Santiago seems happy enough being in the spotlight on the issue.

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