John Gordon had the most hectic period of his professional life as a lawyer and managing partner in Napier & Sons in Belfast in the years leading up to his retirement. Now he has a new role as chairman of social enterprise the NOW Group — which helps adults with autism and learning difficulties. It directly employs 60 people, including some with learning difficulties, in a string of coffee shops — with the profits put back into furthering its aims to help people. It might seem an unlikely sector for a retired lawyer — but not when you consider the wide range of John’s former practice, and the skills of diplomacy he had to apply in insolvency.