John Paton is chairman of the Independent and Evening Standard, and a non-executive director at the Home Office. With a long career as an executive and investor, he has led media companies across the US, Canada and Europe, overseen $7bn in financial transactions, and has previously served on the board of prominent organisations such as the Guardian Media Group. In this in-depth interview, John outlines their ambitious plans for global growth - having abandoned the Independent\u2019s paper edition, the now-digital operation is \u201chugely profitable\u201d and \u201ctargeting $100m in revenue;\u201d describes their strategy to overcome the enormous challenge the Evening Standard has faced with an \u201cempty London;\u201d and takes us behind the scenes of his working relationship with two high-profile and enigmatic figures - Lord Evgeny Lebedev, and the home secretary Priti Patel.\xa0