Background on Lawrence Jones MD of UKFast
Lawrence Jones grew up in Denbigh, North Wales and developed his entrepreneurial spirit alongside a keen love of Rugby at Ruthin Boarding School. He went to college in Manchester at 17 and as a talented pianist began playing regular sessions at Manchester’s hotels for extra cash.
Just playing was never enough and he set up the Music Design Company. During the ‘90’s MDC became the largest supplier of corporate entertainments in Greater Manchester. In 1998 Granada showed an interest.
As Director of Corporate Hospitality, he agreed to go on board for one year. Responsible for the TV channels and hotel chains, if Coronation Street wanted Steve Coogan or lavish ice sculptures at Christmas, he got them there!
After a year, his craving for challenges sent him to the US for a new vision. It was ‘99 and an Internet boom was starting. He wanted a product he could sell to a diverse community and knew the net would grow beyond expectations.
He returned and UKFast was born. Soon after, he renewed his love affair with Rugby by sponsoring the Sale Sharks, an association that continues to be hugely fruitful for both teams. UKFast also developed a communications arm and was the UK’s biggest seller of Orange phone contracts in 2002.
Lawrence's first priority however, remained the Internet. In 2003 he created an R&D Unit charged with finding innovative ways to build UKFast’s network. In tandem, he made a decision to concentrate on business hosting and sideline the emerging broadband market. UKFast took off!
The company now supplies to the UK’s biggest names including Sainsbury's, Littlewoods and Dollond & Aitchison. Industry Recognition came in 2005 when the ISPA named UKFast the ‘Best Hosting Provider’ ahead of Tiscali. UKFast won the award again in 2006 and then again in 2007, remaining the benchmark for the industry.
Lawrence's personal development has been punctuated by a series of events including a near fatal avalanche, marriage to his business partner and the birth of their two children, Tegan and Poppy.
He has been vocal within the media on issues including business hosting, customer care and Internet security. Articles about him, or written by him have appeared in Business Insider’s Essential Guide to Technology, The MEN, EN magazine, B2B Marketing, Better Business, City Life and Channel Info magazine. Lawrence has also been BBC Radio Manchester's Mr Manchester and been interviewed for the Small Biz Pod, a podcast covering all aspects of running a small business.
Lawrence is a great believer in making time to keep in touch with both clients and staff and does this through the UKFast Podcast and the team's training casts respectively. The training casts have been designed by Jones to share the expertise across the company so that departments can learn from each other as well as from senior staff.
