3:02pm Wednesday 13th June 2007
From Angle to Nashville, Tennessee, a Pembrokeshire man says the lessons learned in his home county set him up for international success in the business world.
Tyre consultant Dean Smith set up Doctread after working in the tyre retread industry for 20 years.
The company acts as a retread specialist, consultant and trainer, advising in countries such as Canada, Africa, Puerto-Rico, Mexico, Britain, Germany and Turkey.
Dean, who has worked in Europe and America, still has roots in Pembrokeshire, and says his upbringing set him on the path of chasing his ambitions.
Dean said: "Growing up at East Blockhouse in Angle, who would have thought that one day I'd be living in a metropolis like New York, or Nashville?
"The power of dreams has a phenomenal effect on a young mind, from watching oil tankers enter Milford Haven between Angle and St Ann's Head, to listening to Elvis Presley, to going to the beach.
"It all seemed to assist in the moulding of a young heart. There was a big world out there and I needed a piece of it."
Dean's father was a telecommunications technical officer working for the MOD, and gave Dean a technical background, along with teachers at Pembroke School in Bush.
He added: "My mother taught me strength. Aged four I would walk myself and my brother to school in Angle from East Blockhouse, a couple of miles, twice a day in 1966."
Later in life Dean took a job as a buffer in a tire retreading factory, which started him on an upward spiral in his career. He became maintenance engineer and when they closed operations, he moved to Jordan, to set up a retread factory.
He then applied for a green card and moved to Alabama.
He said: "I got married again to a red-headed, Irish-blooded New Yorker and gained my retread tyre knowledge with different companies.
"I was in New York on September 11th, a memory I would rather forget. I moved to Nashville and set up my own company in America.
"If you follow your dreams, the sky is the limit."
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