Jason Gissing (born 1970) is one of the founders of

Ocado Ocado Group is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It owns a 50% share of Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer) and licenses its grocery fulfilment technology to global ...

, the largest online supermarket in the world.

Early life

Gissing was born in the UK to a Japanese mother and English father and was educated at

Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. The school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

and Worcester College, Oxford University. Whilst at Oxford University, Gissing was a member of the Bullingdon Club, an exclusive drinking society notorious for acts of vandalism on host premise
(1)

Career

After graduating from university, Gissing worked as a bond trader at Goldman Sachs. In January 2000, he started Ocado with two former colleagues from Goldman Sachs,

Tim Steiner Tim Steiner (born 9 August 1965) is a British composer. He is best known for his creation and direction of extremely large-scale musical events. Biography Steiner has directed over 500 participatory music projects in partnership with orchest ...

and Jonathan Faiman. He became chief financial officer of the company. The company moved from a start-up to a household name during his 15 years there. In January 2014, Gissing announced that he would retire in May. On his departure, Ocado had sales of £1 billion and had made its first ever profit. In May 2018, Ocado joined the

FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

valued at almost £6 billion. At the time it was the most valuable technology business in the U.K.

Personal life

Gissing is married to former downhill skier Katinka, daughter of Arne Næss Jr. who led the first ever successful Norwegian ascent of Everest with Sir Chris Bonington and was most famous for being the husband of

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

for 15 years. Gissing and his wife have four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gissing, Jason British retail company founders Goldman Sachs people 21st-century English businesspeople 1970 births People educated at Oundle School Living people Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Chief financial officers English company founders English people of Japanese descent