In fact Mr Cohen looks far younger than his seventy-six years, and has the energy of a man half his age. In fact, it’s his unfailing enthusiasm – which, even after thirty five years in the business, does not seem to have diminished – that has made Sidney Cohen an obvious choice for Bridging and Commercial’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Having begun his prolific career by selling loans, Mr Cohen went on to work for various brokerages, as well as open his own, before he moved into the bridging sector. In his various roles he claims he either advanced due to his “charm and sense of humour”, or because he was bringing in five times more business than his colleagues.

His peers agree. Having worked with most of the main short term lenders he is well known by everybody. Alan Margolis, CEO of Cheval, and former colleague of our award winner, confirmed: “Sidney is one of a kind. He has unparalleled experience of and connections in the bridging sector. His ability to recall obscure facts of long forgotten cases is legendary – a bit like the man himself.”

Through the years he’s seen his fair share of boom-and-bust cycles, but Mr Cohen has said that the current slump is “by far the worst.” This, he believes, is down to its suddenness. “No one saw it coming,” he says, “and no one knows when we’ll be out of it.”

The economic landscape may have changed since he started out (“There were no computers back then, so deals happened a good deal slower than today. Just getting a response from Land Registry took six weeks…” he remembers) but his zeal for deal-making remains – as the endless ringing of his Blackberry testifies during our interview!

Attributing his longevity in the bridging finance sector to a real belief in the product and how it can benefit clients, he admits: “It’s more expensive than other forms of finance, but if you went to the doctor with an illness and he said he has a medicine to cure it, but won’t give it to you because it doesn’t taste very nice, what would you say? It’s the same with bridging loans. They don’t go down easily, but they do the job.”

But does he have plans to retire? Apparently not. According to Mr Cohen, he has stayed so long in the sector because “work doesn’t feel so much like work when you enjoy doing it every day”, which makes a refreshing outlook after so much doom and gloom mongering amongst industry figures recently.

From all of us here, we wish Sidney Cohen a huge congratulations on his well-deserved win.