Sir Crispin Davis has a dream. Like many people, in an idle moment, his thoughts turn to the prospect of buying a house surrounded by land.

The chief executive of Reed Elsevier may have more time to spend on finding his rural idyll when he finally hands over the reins next year.

However, Sir Crispin, 59, will not be spending all his time in wellies when he hangs up his pin-stripes.

“I want to continue to do something in the plc world – maybe a chairmanship. I have also had some conversations with private equity groups,” he says. Reed Elsevier yesterday announced that it was on track to meet its 2008 goals despite a more challenging economic backdrop, after first-half profits beat expectations, lifting its shares by almost 6 per cent, or 32½p, to 576½p.

Profits were up to £350 million in the first half from £308 million the previous year. Sales from continuing operations at Reed, which owns some of the world’s biggest exhibitions businesses and is a leader in scientific, medical, legal, and business publishing rose 5 per cent to £1.97 billion, driven by strong growth in online information.

Sir Crispin has been chief executive of Reed since 2000, and was knighted in 2004 for services to publishing and information. He cut his teeth as a chief executive at Aegis, the advertising group he led for five years until 1999.

Sir Crispin’s career has also taken him into the consumer goods sector – he was formerly a managing director of Guinness Group, now Diageo, and spent 19 years in senior management at Procter & Gamble. He has been a director of GlaxoSmithKline since 2003. As well as eyeing further chairman roles, Sir Crispin is keen to do charity work when he leaves Reed.

With interests in the arts, music and education, Sir Crispin has previously worked with the National Trust and the Tate development board.

Sir Crispin told The Times that he hopes his legacy at Reed will be that he and his team “transformed the company from an underperforming print-based firm to a strongly performing, largely online company”.