- Mark Dixon (businessman)
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Mark Dixon is an Essex born English businessman, best known as the founder of serviced office business Regus.
Contents
Biography
The son of a Ford car mechanic, Dixon was educated at Rainsford comprehensive school (now St Peters College). On noticing that a new housing estate needed nourishment for its gardens, he sold peat distributed by wheelbarrow.[1]
Career
Leaving school at 16,[1] Dixon founded sandwich making business Dial-a-Snack, which delivered locally on a butchers bicycle. After the business failed, he travelled the world, becoming: a barman in St Tropez; a miner in Australia; a farmhand in Asia; and selling encyclopaedias.[1][2]
Returning to Essex, he invested £600 in a burger van, based on London's North Circular road.[1] From profits he then bought seven other vans, but found difficulty in obtaining good and regular bun supply.[1] Travelling between meetings on either a bicycle or in one of his vans,[3] he set up The Bread Roll Company to supply his own and other mobile fast food vendors, which he sold in 1988 for £800,000.[2]
Relocating to Brussels, Belgium, he set up an apartment rental business. While sitting in a cafe, he regularly noticed how local business people were forced to meet around the small tables of local coffee shops, and resultantly set up Regus in 1989.[4] Floated in October 2000, it was valued at £1.5bn. By mid-2001, the business worth £2bn, with Dixon's 60pc stake making him a billionaire.[2] However, in light of the failure of the dot.com boom, Dixon's stake fell and he was value at less than £80m, with the UK arm of the business being sold to Alchemy Partners.[2]
Dixon has since rebuilt the business, and now owns the Chateau de Berne vineyard in Provence.[2]
Personal life
Dixon met his ex-wife, journalist Trudy Groves who was then sub-editor on the Luton News, in 1987.[3] After marrying in 1988 and selling his baking business, they moved to Virginia Water, and have two children. Dixon has three children from prior relationships.[3]
In late 2003, the family moved to Connecticut so Dixon could improve the US business performance of Regus.[3] In 2005, Dixon divorced Trudy, the mother to two of his five children, in a £28.7m settlement.[2] Dixon is presently resident for tax reasons in Monaco.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d e Cave, Andrew (2004-07-17). "Mark Dixon, CEO of Regus: A true entrepreneur back on the expansion trail". London: The Independent. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/profiles/5219967/Mark-Dixon-the-Briton-who-wants-to-build-a-new-Google.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
- ^ a b c d e f g Cave, Andrew (2009-04-25). "Mark Dixon: the Briton who wants to build a new Google". London: The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/profiles/5219967/Mark-Dixon-the-Briton-who-wants-to-build-a-new-Google.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
- ^ a b c d "Regus founder in £28m divorce". Daily Mail. 2005-03-29. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=399237&in_page_id=2. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
- ^ Regus: The Regus Story
External links
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