Aaron Simpson (born 6 January 1972) is a British businessman, entrepreneur and former film producer. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of

Quintessentially Group Quintessentially Group is a British lifestyle management company founded in 2000 by Aaron Simpson, Ben Elliot and Paul Drummond. The company is headquartered in London and operates 60 offices worldwide. Quintessentially is a members-only "luxu ...

, an international members-only lifestyle management company and concierge group. Simpson is also a founding trustee of the Quintessentially Foundation. A former film producer, Simpson has worked with Scala Films,

Rocket Pictures Rocket Pictures is a British film company founded in 1996 by Elton John to produce family and music-themed film and TV projects. The company was established in 1996 with a ten-year first-look deal with The Walt Disney Company, a three-year deal ...

and he founded his own company, Flashlight Films.

Early life and education

Simpson was born in

Leigh-on-Sea Leigh-on-Sea (), commonly referred to simply as Leigh, is a List of towns in England, town and civil parish within the city of Southend-on-Sea, located in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. In 2011 it had a population of 22,509. Geograph ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England, the son of teacher and shoe manufacturer. Simpson was educated at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. He studied geography and achieved a 2:1. He was elected Steward at St Edmund Hall. He founded the Oxford and Cambridge Shakespearian Festivals producing over 300 plays in those university towns.

Career

Early career

Simpson worked in film production as an assistant photocopier for Steven Woolley's Scala Films, the production company behind ''

Interview with the Vampire ''Interview with the Vampire'' is a gothic horror and vampire novel by American author Anne Rice, published in 1976. It was her debut novel. Based on a short story Rice wrote around 1968, the novel centers on vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac ...

'' and the Oscar-winning ''

The Crying Game ''The Crying Game'' is a 1992 crime thriller film, written and directed by Neil Jordan, produced by Stephen Woolley and Nik Powell, and starring Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson, Adrian Dunbar, Ralph Brown, and Forest Whitak ...

''. After a year with the production company, Simpson was promoted to head of development. Later, Simpson began working as a producer at

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

before starting his own production company, Flashlight Films.

Quintessentially

Simpson co-founded

in 2000 with

Ben Elliot Sir Benjamin William Elliot (born 11 August 1975) is a British businessman and fund-raiser for the Conservative Party who served as Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party from July 2019 alongside James Cleverly (2019–2020), Amanda Milling (2 ...

and Paul Drummond. Simpson serves as the group executive chairman. Simpson and Drummond met at Oxford and started the company with Elliot as a small, London-based concierge service. Since then, Quintessentially Group has expanded to 78 countries with over 1,500 employees and 33 sister businesses. In 2017, Simpson began work on the "world's biggest superyacht", the ''Quintessentially One'', backed by five billionaire investors. The 722-foot yacht is scheduled to launch in 2019.

Other activities

In 2014, Simpson started an online investment platform with David Mickler and Lex Deak called Q Ventures, which has raised over £50m in capital for new ventures.

Personal life

Simpson is married and has two daughters. He and his family live between London and

Ibiza, Spain Ibiza (; ; ; see below) or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands in are ...

References

External links

Quintessentially websiteQuintessentially Foundation website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Aaron English businesspeople Living people 1972 births People from Leigh-on-Sea Alumni of the University of Oxford