Jamie B. Waller is an entrepreneur. He founded the

debt collection Debt collection is the process of pursuing payments of debts owed by individuals or businesses. An organization that specializes in debt collection is known as a collection agency or debt collector. Most collection agencies operate as agents of ...

and

outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

company, JBW Group, a

fintech Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are r ...

solutions company, Hito, the

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firm, Firestarters, and the

company Just, where he serves as chair.

Early life and education

Waller was born in

London's East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

. He attended

Raine's Foundation School Raine's Foundation School was a Church of England voluntary aided school based on two sites in Bethnal Green in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England. It was situated in the north of Bethnal Green, just to the east of ''Cambridge Heath ...

, but left with no qualifications. He later studied business at

Cranfield University , mottoeng = After clouds light , established = 1946 - College of Aeronautics 1969 - Cranfield Institute of Technology (gained university status by royal charter) 1993 - Cranfield University (adopted current name) , type = Public research uni ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, and the

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

. While growing up in East London Waller was part of the Imps, a charity for disadvantaged children which in 2015 he saved with the help of other entrepreneurs from going bankrupt. He was part of the Imps from age 5 through to 16. As a child from a disadvantaged background, that also suffered from dyslexia, Waller was also helped by the charity, The Prince's Trust In 2018, Cranfield University awarded him the Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Career

Waller started working as a debt collector but quit at the age of 21, planning to travel the world for a year. In Australia, he started a business building and selling camper vans for other tourists. He founded the debt collection company, JBW Group, in 2004. In 2014 the firm attempted unsuccessfully to obtain a legal injunction preventing the BBC from airing a ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

'' episode critical of the company's practices. In 2015 the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

dropped charges against a man arrested for allegedly assaulting a JBW bailiff, concluding that the bailiff was trespassing and that the man was within his rights to use reasonable force to eject him. In 2017, he sold the business to a Japanese company, Outsourcing Inc. Waller founded the financial services technology company, Hito, six days after selling JBW Group. In 2017 the company was also sold to Outsourcing Inc. During his career, he was stabbed and held hostage at gunpoint. In 2009, the UK

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

(MoJ) issued a series of contracts for bailiff services to be provided for

magistrates courts A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) * Magistrate's Cour ...

in England and Wales. JBW Group's tender was unsuccessful and the Group challenged the MoJ, alleging that there had been a breach of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 in the way the tender exercise had been undertaken. Their claim was dismissed on the basis that the contracts concerned were service concessions and not public services contracts, and the dismissal was upheld by the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

in 2012. Waller founded the private equity business, Firestarters, in 2017. In 2017, he acquired the international consulting firm; Arum and in 2019 founded the FinTech firm; Just. In 2021, in response to the international pandemic, Waller introduced a technology solution to the industry to protect vulnerable people from being visited by Government collection companies which the Government and industry tried to stop. His business, Just was successful in taking the matter to the High Court which ruled that a person in debt can request that a visit was undertaken virtually and not in person which would go on to save those in debt costs and protect the spread of Covid. Waller is also the Founder and immediate past Chair of the Prince's Trust Enterprise Network which he formed in 2020. In 2023 he accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of His Majesty King Charles III and The Prince’s Trust at the Business Champion Awards.

Media

Waller featured in the BBC's ''

Bailiffs A bailiff (from Middle English baillif, Old French ''baillis'', ''bail'' "custody") is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offi ...

'' TV show for two years beginning in 2000 along with other members of WiseHill and JBW staff. He was also featured in the follow-up show ''The Enforcers'' and in the debt advice show ''Beat the Bailiff''. He is also the author of two books, Unsexy Business and The Dyslexic Entrepreneur

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waller, Jamie Living people British businesspeople Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)