Jason Gissing (born 1970) is one of the founders of

Ocado Ocado Group is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It owns a 50% share of Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer) and licenses its grocery fulfilment technology to global ...

, the largest online supermarket in the world.

Early life

Gissing was born in the UK to a Japanese mother and English father and was educated at

Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. The school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

and

Worcester College, Oxford University Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

. Whilst at Oxford University, Gissing was a member of the Bullingdon Club, an exclusive drinking society notorious for acts of vandalism on host premise
(1)

Career

After graduating from university, Gissing worked as a bond trader at Goldman Sachs. In January 2000, he started Ocado with two former colleagues from Goldman Sachs, Tim Steiner and

Jonathan Faiman Jonathan Faiman (born 1969) was one of the three founders of online grocery and technology business Ocado in 2000. He left the business in 2008, before the company floated on the London Stock Exchange. Faiman sold most of his shares in Ocado in 2 ...

. He became chief financial officer of the company. The company moved from a start-up to a household name during his 15 years there. In January 2014, Gissing announced that he would retire in May. On his departure, Ocado had sales of £1 billion and had made its first ever profit. In May 2018, Ocado joined the

FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

valued at almost £6 billion. At the time it was the most valuable technology business in the U.K.

Personal life

Gissing is married to former downhill skier Katinka, daughter of Arne Næss Jr. who led the first ever successful Norwegian ascent of Everest with Sir Chris Bonington and was most famous for being the husband of Diana Ross for 15 years. Gissing and his wife have four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gissing, Jason British retail company founders Goldman Sachs people 21st-century English businesspeople 1970 births People educated at Oundle School Living people Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Chief financial officers English company founders English people of Japanese descent