It has taken several months to coax Paul Zahra into having lunch. Our long-awaited catch-up was preceded by dozens of Twitter messages, emails, phone calls and a coffee meeting. But the former David Jones chief executive has good reasons for wanting to stay out of the limelight after a four-year roller-coaster ride running one of the country's most iconic companies.

Life is very different now and it shows when he arrives at Sydney's Pendolino restaurant on a blisteringly hot afternoon. Zahra, 48, looks healthy after spending the past three months travelling and living at his holiday house on NSW's central coast. In a nod to his more relaxed schedule, the self-confessed luxury addict is wearing an open-necked shirt and a sky-blue Ermenegildo Zegna sports jacket.