Monday Interview: Veteran Mr Fix-it makes a success of retirement It's not a quiet life. Last month, Hitachi rescued the Government's nuclear ambitions by buying Horizon Nuclear Power, the former joint venture of Germany's E.On and RWE nPower for £696m, taking over its plans to build new nuclear plants in Oldbury, Gloucestershire, and Wylfra, Anglesey. Buckley believes the investment has taken "a great deal of courage" by Hitachi, which is striving to internationalise its operations. Now, the Yorkshireman, a critic of wind and solar power because of its intermittent capability, thinks Britain should also embrace shale gas and secure its energy supplies. "I think it would be a laudable thing for Britain to say, 'let's strive for energy independence within 10 to 15 years,"" he states. It would be a great policy to see if you could put together a portfolio of energy generating capabilities in low head hydro, nuclear, gas and the things we've already got in wind power and strike for energy independence. The row over his knighthood also seems to have blown over. The honour was overshadowed by becoming an issue in last year's dispute between 3M and Porton Investments, a company part-owned by the Ministry of Defence from which 3M had made an acquisition. In the run-up to the dispute going to court, Porton Group chief executive Harvey Boulton sent 3M's lawyer two emails threatening to use contacts with the then Defence Secretary Liam Fox to have Buckley's knighthood withdrawn. The court issues were settled but shed light on Fox's dealings with his adviser Adam Werrity that ultimately led to Fox's resignation. "I've never met Liam but I've been told he's a very good politician so I think what happened was very sad," says Buckley. But I don't think it took any gloss off the knighthood. He's still part of a very small group of Brits at the top of corporate America, alongside Sir Jonathan Ive at Apple. "There are not many of us around," he acknowledges. It does seem a bit odd but America has a much more intense industrial atmosphere. It's much, much more competitive. Nobody in the US criticises Warren Buffett or the late Steve Jobs for having made a lot of money and I think we're short of heroes in Britain. I wish we had some people like that whom we could point to who are successful and don't inspire jealousy in people. There is a bit of feeling we have sometimes in Europe that if somebody's successful they must have done it by some kind of illicit means. Britain's private equity kingpins were accused of something similar at the height of the last boom but Buckley says he would never have joined the industry if it was just interested in asset-stripping. "In private equity, you only have to do three things: buy well, operate well and sell well," he says. Operating well is really my forte. It's about how you build better companies, teams, manufacturing, products and distribution and how you make a more competitive company. If you do that, when you exit these investments, it's not just a company that's made more money but a better company with a better future. Buckley's own quest for self-improvement took him to the US in 1978 to work for General Motors, although he quit after a year for power group Detroit Edison. "There was always the dream," he says. I was always fascinated by America. It was always bigger and, one presumed, better. I was intrigued as to whether I could go there and succeed. Could I live with these supermen and compete on equal terms? To be honest, I think there was also a belief as a Northern young man from working class roots that Britain probably wouldn't be a place where I could succeed, at least not at the highest level. He has joint UK and US nationality and still spends about a week every month in Britain but is disturbed by crime levels. "In some senses it doesn't feel like the country I left," he says. I think Britain is probably also not as industrious and there's almost a feeling of inevitable decline. There's a need to rebuild confidence. If the capability is not there, it can be rebuilt where it doesn't exist or has weakened. I don't do surrendering all that well. Buckley has a background of rising from adversity. He was born in Sheffield but his mother abandoned him when he was four and he lived in a children's home, where he was abused. He was later brought up by a foster mother and says he bears no bitterness. "A lot of people have said: 'Don't you think it was horrible for your mother to leave you when you were a baby?"" he says. But we don't know how things were in those days. People did what they needed to survive. It was a really tough time so I choose not to sit in judgment on my mother or anybody else. I don't feel the least bit under-privileged, put-down, beaten-up or put-upon. Why would I? I've had a fabulous life.  Buckley believes his early social deprivation gave him "some drive I might not otherwise have had" and credits his foster grandmother for stiffening his resolve. "She had a set of rules like 'if you can stand you can go to work" or 'nice people don't talk about money,"" he says. She had all these Victorian values about things that you just don't do and I have tried to live my life along those lines. I don't ever remember getting an encouraging word from her or any kind of affection or love. She wasn't up for that kind of stuff. I was terrified of the woman but she has made me who I am today. I always wanted to make things better. Maybe I'm one of life's Mr fix-its.