Mark Abayomi Esho (born 17 August 1962) is a British entrepreneur. He is the founder and co-owner of both Easy Internet Services Ltd and Easy Internet Solutions Lt.

Background

Esho was born in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

in 1962. At the age of five, he contracted

polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...

, leaving him paralysed from the neck down. He was originally given a 10% chance of survival, but was eventually able to regain limited mobility. Esho moved to

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

at the age of eight to start mainstream school, before returning to Leicester at 18. He later completed an MBA at

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body ...

Business career

Esho worked for seven years in Leicester as a Service Manager for Mosaic, a local charity. Due to chronic fatigue caused by his childhood polio, he decided to start his own business instead of continuing a nine-to-five job. Esho started Houses-Online in 1999, a property listing website. The project ended shortly afterwards, and Esho started a second business in 2000 under the name Rank4U. At the time it was one of only four search engine optimisation companies in the UK, and serviced clients including

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

and

The Co-operative Group The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses, including grocery retail and wholesale, leg ...

. In the following years, Esho developed two companies simultaneously: Easy Internet Services (search engine optimisation, now under the name 123 Ranking) and Easy Internet Solutions (later Free Virtual Servers, later FVS Hosting). Both businesses were early adopters of employing remote workers, and Esho has been a vocal supporter of remote monitoring software for employees. In 2020, Mark co-founde
Access Rating
a social enterprise and disabled access consultancy. The Access Rating app was released online, allowing disabled people to submit access reviews for public venues across the UK.

Honours and recognition

Esho was the winner of first ever National Diversity Award for Business Excellence in September 2012. Easy Internet went on to sponsor the National Diversity Awards in Leeds the following year. In October 2012, he presented the Young Person Award at the 11th African and African Caribbean Achievement Awards. In February 2013, Esho was interviewed on BBC Radio Leicester about his own story and government support for disabled jobseekers. In July 2013, Esho met with Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

and featured as a case study as part of the government's Disability Confident programme. Esho's continued support for disabled employees and jobseekers in the UK has also been cited by the government's Great Business initiative and the Minister of State for Disabled People at the time,

Mike Penning Sir Michael Alan Penning (born 28 September 1957) is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of parliament (MP) for Hemel Hempstead (UK Parliament constitu ...

. In November 2013, Esho was part of the judging panel for the

Leicester Mercury The ''Leicester Mercury'' is a British regional newspaper for the city of Leicester and the neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The paper began in the 19th century as the ''Leicester Daily Mercury'' and later changed to its pre ...

's "Leicestershire's Young Business Executive of the Year Award". In 2016, Easy Internet Solutions became a patron of the Leicestershire Law Society. Later the same year, Esho was nominated at the

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and inco ...

East Midlands Director of the Year Awards, which took place on 30 June 2016. He was awarded a Highly Commended certificate in the category of "Director of the Year SME – Small". In 2019, Mark won the Institute of Director's East Midlands Director of the Year Awards for Inclusivity, making him a finalist for the nationwide awards. Esho was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to business. In 2022, Mark was included in The Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 list, recognising the 100 most influential disabled people living and working in the UK.

Writing

In 2018, Mark's first book, 'I Can. I Will.' was published by Rethink Press. The book describes how he contracted polio at the age of five and the effect it had on his life. It discusses the difficulties he experienced in accessing education and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, before eventually becoming a successful businessman. Esho covers topics such as racial discrimination and disability and ends each chapter with a reflection on his struggles and lessons he has learned. The Leicester book launch took place on Thursday 27 September 2018 at the Queen Victoria Arts Club in the city's cultural quarter. It was attended by local business representatives, Rotarians and friends and family. This was followed by a London launch hosted at Rotary HQ and attended by the Rotary polio ambassador Konnie Huq.

Sport

Esho is a keen player and supporter of wheelchair sports teams. His company Easy Internet Services has sponsored The Leicester Cobras, a local wheelchair basketball club and charity, for a number of years. Esho has also participated in several wheelchair tennis tournaments. He was involved in the first ever Loughborough Wheelchair Tennis Open at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public university, public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university sinc ...

in 2014, and the first Grantham Tennis Club wheelchair tournament in August 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Esho, Mark English businesspeople 1962 births Living people People from Leicestershire English people of Nigerian descent Members of the Order of the British Empire