Mark Dixon (businessman)
| Mark Dixon | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Mark Leslie James Dixon November 1959 (age 57) Essex, England |
| Residence | Monaco |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | St Peter's College |
| Known for | founder of Regus |
| Net worth | US$1.39 billion (May 2017) |
| Spouse(s) | Trudi Groves |
| Children | 5 |
Mark Leslie James Dixon (born November 1959) is an Essex-born English billionaire businessman, best known as the founder of serviced office business Regus.
Mark Leslie James Dixon was born in November 1959, the son of a Ford car mechanic, Dixon was educated at Rainsford comprehensive school (which subsequently became St Peter's College and which was abandoned and left derelict in 2011 ). On noticing that a new housing estate needed nourishment for its gardens, he sold peat distributed by wheelbarrow.
After leaving school at 16, Dixon founded sandwich making business Dial-a-Snack, which delivered locally on a butcher's 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 encyclopedias.
Returning to Essex, he invested £600 in a burger van, based on London's North Circular road. From profits he then bought seven other vans, but found difficulty in obtaining good and regular bun supply. Travelling between meetings on either a bicycle or in one of his vans, 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.
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. 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. However, in light of the failure of the dot.com boom, Dixon's stake fell and he was valued at less than £80m, with the UK arm of the business being sold to Alchemy Partners.
Dixon has since rebuilt the business, and now owns the Chateau de Berne vineyard in Provence.
...
Wikipedia