A day in the life of: Jonathan Khan

At a time when many are looking to switch industries or try something different, we bring you first person accounts of the lives of entrepreneurs or senior executives, outlining a typical day in their business. Who knows, maybe the perfect idea is waiting for you. Read on and get inspired.

With the growing concerns about the environment, what Wild Planet Productions is undertaking is commendable. Jonathan Khan, Managing Director, tells us what a day in his life is like.

6:30 AM

Get up in order to wake up my son Lucas for school and face the morning “love fest” of greetings by our nine cats for cuddles, scratching and demands for attention!

Then I step into my home-office to check e-mails, catch up on my three project-related Facebook pages and crack a few e-mails in time to drive Lucas to school (if it’s my turn)!

8:30 AM

Get ready and re-work one of our Sharkquest Arabia PowerPoint presentations for a Zayed University talk that I have been invited to.

10:00 AM

On days when I need to venture away from the creative cave, 10:30 am is usually the time I set for my first meeting of the day and rush to get to Dubai Media City.

11:30 AM

It’s time for the next meeting at the Lime Tree Café, where my wife, Jody joins me for a late breakfast. We go over the production budgets we are sending to our joint venture partners in the UK for Sharkquest Arabia.  We receive a call from Mark Wild in the UK to let us know that we’ve just been given a letter of interest and intent from National Geographic Television International for global distribution of the magazine.

12:30 PM

Drive back to the house and get back to my computers. Fire up the Final Cut Pro and open up the destination film edits we are completing for Le Meridien.

3:00 PM

My turn to pick up Lucas from school and I welcome the break and chance to spend time with him.

3:40 PM

Back to the e-mails, edits, designs, phone calls and chase up for answers from the previous day. Trying to nail sponsorship for content creation these days is not easy.

4:30 PM

Make a phone call to the PR team, following up on their e-mails about the various Wild Planet Twitter and social media campaigns. We are stepping up the offensive, and they’ve set up another tier one magazine interview and want to know when I am available.

5:15 PM

Arrive at Zayed University men’s campus in Academic City in order to set up my PowerPoint and video presentation. I’m talking about the Sharkquest Arabia documentary and awareness project and the role of the UAE as a major distribution hub for shark fins destined for Asia’s insatiable demand for shark fin soup.  I’ve been invited to give a 50 minutes presentation and was warned not to be fazed, if we get a low turnout. However, 130 students show up and not only sit through the whole show, but even ask questions.

7:00 PM

By the time I get home, I’m ready for down-time after a quick check for any new e-mails. I spend a few minutes checking our Facebook pages and Tweets and do a final sit down with Jody about the day’s correspondence, accounts and so forth.

7:30 PM

Dinnertime! I’m the cook in the house (one of my passions in life, stemming from a childhood growing up in Italy)!

8:30 PM

It’s time to sit down and lounge in front of the TV.

10:30 PM

I have somehow mysteriously found my way back into the AV cave and depending on the job, I usually put in another three to four hours!

2:00 AM

I crawl quietly into bed feeling excited that in less than a month, I will be out in the field on a five month expedition shooting for Sharkquest Arabia again! For me the field, whether underwater or terrestrial, is where I thrive and feel the ultimate creative challenge of filmmaking!