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Nick Leeson on life on the outside
 Leeson single-handedly ran up $1.3 billion in liabilities while trading for Barings Bank. MORE GLOBAL OFFICEYOUR E-MAIL ALERTSON CNNI TV
(CNN) -- "Unfortunately, until the day I die I will always be known as the Rogue Trader," reflects Nick Leeson. "It's a title I'm saddled with; I'm never going to change that. I've come to terms with that, so I just live with it." Leeson's story has become a modern morality tale in a world addicted to the fluctuations of the financial markets. Ten years ago, Leeson was star trader at Barings Bank in Singapore -- making millions of dollars for his employers by speculating on futures derivatives. Aged 27, he lived the lifestyle of a high-roller, funded by the rewards of his success and eagerly encouraged by an employer hungry for more profits. But in 1995 Leeson's luck ran out. In a bid to recoup mounting losses he embarked on a series of increasingly desperate gambles. By the time he fled his desk, Leeson had run up $1.3 billion in liabilities, wiping out Barings' entire capital and reserves. The bank -- a bastion of the British financial establishment since its foundation in 1762 -- collapsed; Leeson, after briefly going on the run in a failed attempt to return to the UK, went to jail in Singapore on fraud charges. Released in 1999, Leeson returned to the UK a changed man. On top of surviving prison life, he had been diagnosed with, and successfully treated for, cancer and been divorced by his wife during his sentence. "There were things that happened during the sentence, you know -- divorce, cancer, these sorts of things were exceptionally difficult," Leeson told CNN. "I always had another battle to face and in some way the battle would pull me through." Leeson came to terms with his experiences by writing "Rogue Trader," the account of his financial misadventures that was later turned into a film, starring Ewan McGregor. As a free man, Leeson began to reflect on his personality: success-driven, hungry for status, someone who kept problems to himself. Now those reflections have been turned into a follow-up book, "Back from the Brink: Coping with Stress." "The thing that I found helped me during that period was writing about my experiences, getting them down on paper and dealing with it," he says. "If you have a close friend or a confidante to speak to, you know you can just talk through your problems. It is one way to lessen that burden. "I can't impact what people in the street think about me. What I can impact is the people who know me, spend time with me, friends and family who know me for who I am." These days, Leeson has a new life and family in the west of Ireland and a new business goal -- working with his local soccer team, Galway United. Leeson is commercial director at the club -- a job he's comfortable with, in a life he's comfortable with. Ten years after the Barings' collapse, he's still learning to look at his life in a different way. "One of the most important things in my life now is reframing the way I think about things, trying to extract a positive from the things that are happening to you. It's not always easy. It's very difficult to see at times, but you can do it." 
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