Ross Williams

Ross began his illustrious career selling Christmas trees – helping people choose a tree, wrap it up and take it to their car. From this he learnt two things: that jumping into a massive pile of trees isn’t as soft as it looks and the cheaper the car the more generous the customer! Come January, Ross had to leave his beloved Norwegian spruces behind. Realising he wanted to be a RAF Pilot, he enthusiastically set about achieving this goal. He learnt how to glide solo at 14, fly powered solo at 17 and was licensed at 18. Unfortunately he realised that that the RAF wasn’t all about looking cool and Top Gun quotes, and at some point could be put in a position where bigger boys may try to hurt him. At this time he promptly checked out and went into musical theatre – but that’s a whole other story!

Ross finally found his true calling in 2003 when he set up Global Personals with Steve Pammenter. Under his leadership the business has grown to become one of the most successful privately owned web companies in the world.

Ross loves the variety and challenge of developing the business at breakneck speed, learning about our customers and what they want, then using the best technology and marketing to meet that demand. He was shortlisted as Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006, selected as Top 10 to watch in 2007 and was nominated in two categories in the Fast Growth Business Awards in 2008.

Outside of work you will find Ross walking his scarily massive dog, lovingly patting his cars, reading business books, cycling along the Thames and trying to resist the free Global pastries.