Mike Jordan of Cornish Stairways International semi retires

Now the chairman of Cornish Stairways International is preparing to semi-retire back to his home town, following a career that has included work at Buckingham Palace, the Bank of England in London and various British embassies – not to mention 24 years of iconic building projects for His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, out in the Middle East.

Mike told the Packet: "I'm 74 this year. My wife says, 'Are you never going to slow down?'"

Now, no doubt to the delight of his wife, that time has come for Mike – sort of.

He said: "I have now decided to semi-retire back here in Falmouth, my home town, after such a good time working over those years. What an experience it has been."

As a result Mike has returned to Cornwall to – as he describes it – "start the process of retiring!"

Cornish Stairways, which has its headquarters in Penryn, was born out of a 200-year old family master blacksmith business, 'Davey and Jordan', and has gone onto to win global acclaim.

A spectacular staircase under construction

As a young boy, Mike would watch his father working at the forge in Penryn and now he has taken the family business and catapulted it into the 21st century.

In 1978, with a £4,000 investment, Mike started Cornish Stairways. His links with the Middle East really took off though in 1998, when he won an international design award with famous architect Lord Foster, of London Architects, to design all 202 stairways in the Burj Al Arab Hotel and a gold stairway for his penthouse in the only seven-star hotel in the world.

This was followed by the penthouse in the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, and a four-storey glass stairway on the Crown Prince's super mega yacht My Dubai, at the time the largest yacht in the world, along with too many others to list.

The Sheikh started a company in Dubai to enable Mike to complete the work for the hotel, which at the time started with 240 men and, in the time Mike has been non-executive chairman of it, that has grown over the past 24 year to now employing 730 people. 

Mike has been lucky enough to finish his stairway career working on the Museum of the Future in Dubai, widely considered to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world in modern times.

"Working with Buro Happold structural engineers on the engineering modelling of my work was such an experience, of which I am so proud," he said.

Mike's company is currently working on the Museum of the Future in Dubai

However, despite all this, Mike insists: "I'm just a local boy that's done well. I wouldn't swap Cornwall for the world. This is God's country – I'm not swapping this."

After such global success many companies might have been tempted to rebrand, but for Mike keeping 'Cornish' in his firm's name was important – with the word 'International' the only nod to its world renown.

"It connects with people. They might have come down when they were kids. They might have got married here, or engaged here. Everybody remembers the name Cornwall if they've been here.

"People say 'Get that Cornish Stairway man in here' – they've forgotten my name!

"I've had the privilege of bringing up my sons here in Falmouth and on the Helford. I think everybody should feel privileged living here."

The original blacksmiths in Penryn

Over the years Mike has given plenty back, including with the Prince's Trust and as a judge of the International Property Awards, also being involved behind the scenes in bringing a university to Cornwall, and so he pointed out: "I've got plenty to do in my retirement."

And he has also indicated that he is "wanting to do a few others things that help Cornwall."

Given his track record to date, watch this space.

For those interested in seeing more of Mike's work visit www.cornishstairways.com