Nigel Patrick Robertson (born August 13, 1962) is a British

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and businessman, best known as the founder of FreePages plc (later renamed

Scoot.com Scoot is a United Kingdom business directory website. It was one of the highest profile casualties of the rise and fall of internet companies during the internet boom at the beginning of the 21st century falling from a value of £2.5 billion in ...

). Nigel was included in the 2005 Sunday Times Rich List and Monaco's Rich List in 2007.

Biography

Nigel Robertson is a great-grandson of Austin Reed, the founder of Austin Reed Group plc, the British fashion retail chain. He attended

Feltonfleet School Feltonfleet School is a Preparatory school (UK), preparatory school for boys and girls from 3 to 13 years old, based in Cobham, Surrey, Cobham, Surrey in a Grade II listed building. The school is a charitable trust. It was founded in 1903 and st ...

Cobham, Surrey Cobham () is a large village in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, centred south-west of London and northeast of Guildford on the River Mole. It has a commercial/services High Street, a significant number of primary and private s ...

and

Canford School Canford School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18). Situated in 300 acres of parkland near to the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, south west England, it is one of the largest sch ...

near

Wimborne Minster Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Poole ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

. Nigel grew up in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and today lives partly in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

, Los Angeles, and partly in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

Business exploits

Nigel Robertson started his career in the advertising industry in 1981 as a media planner/buyer with Michael Bungey DFS. In 1984, he joined

Television South West Television South West (TSW) was the ITV franchise holder for the South West England region from 1 January 1982 until 31 December 1992, broadcasting from studios at Derry's Cross in Plymouth, Devon. History Origins and Launch On 28 December ...

as an advertising sales executive. Subsequently, he became a director and shareholder of the advertising agency Squires White Robertson Gill plc in 1987. Four years later, he co-founded the directory business FreePages plc, later rebranded as

and quoted on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

(AIM) in 1994. Robertson stepped down and left the company in 1998 and went to live in Monaco. In 2004 he founded Blue Star Capital plc as a vehicle to invest in private companies while working alongside management to help them develop their businesses. A number of these companies have now been quoted on AIM, including ASOS plc, the UK's largest online fashion and beauty store which was launched in 2000 by Robertson's brother Nick. Robertson resigned from Blue Star Capital in December 2008.Press release from Blue Star Capital plc, 6 December 2008
/ref> In 2011, he founded Disruptive Tech Ltd, an investment holding company in disruptive technologies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Nigel People educated at Canford School English businesspeople Living people 1962 births People from Redhill, Surrey English expatriates in the United States English expatriates in Monaco