As changes of career go, few people can beat Leicester graduate Muhammed Lameen Abdul-Malik, who has recently been interviewed by the South African Times.

Born in Basle, Switzerland, Lameen lived in Lagos, Nigeria until he was 12 when his family moved to the UK. He studied in our Department of Economics and then took an MBA at the University of Exeter. After eight years working for the British Government he joined the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a programme management officer.

The IAEA is the UN agency which became famous for trying to find WMDs in Iraq and concluding (correctly) that there weren’t any. Although this work wasn’t able to prevent the subsequent UK/US invasion, the Nobel Committee awarded the 2005 Peace Prize to the IAEA and its director general Mohamed ElBaradei.

During his seven years with the UN, Lameen oversaw operations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Mauritius. On a connecting flight via Cape Town, he fell in love with the city and at the end of 2009 he moved there with his family – and opened a coffee shop.

Escape Caffé has two unique features that you won’t find in any other establishment: the cakes, some of which Lameen bakes himself, and a framed Nobel Prize certificate on the wall.

• Times: Nuclear boffin turns his energy to coffee