About the founder

Jamie Murray Wells is the founder of Glasses Direct, which he started at university. Four years later the 25 year-old has seen grown the company to become the largest online retailer of prescription glasses in the world.

High-street opticians charge an average of £150 per pair of glasses, but Jamie found a way to offer the same products for £15 on the web.

Despite early threats of legal action, and pressure on his suppliers from high street brands, Jamie fought to fully establish Glasses Direct in the optical market place, and now it is quickly becoming a household name.

The company estimates it ships a pair every few minutes round the clock, and that it has saved the UK public in excess of £25 million pounds on their glasses.

When he's not busy building Glasses Direct into a global brand, Jamie advises both major political parties on their new enterprise strategy and both comments and writes on enterprise and current affairs for national newspapers and broadcasters. Subjects he covers have included the postal strike, pre-budget reports from the Government, and capital gains tax. He has appeared on BBC News 24, Radio 5 Live, Tonight, GMTV, Sky News, and is regularly quoted in a variety of Fleet Street newspapers including the Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph.

Jamie takes an active interest in promoting UK entrepreneurialism, as a Make Your Mark ambassador for UK Enterprise, by providing advice, support and occasionally investment to other young entrepreneurs (latest investment www.mybuilder.com) as well as being a National Judge for Enterprising Britain 2007 and also in 2008.

According to startups.co.uk, Jamie was rated the top entrepreneur of 2005, beating Sir Richard Branson, Sir Alan Sugar, and Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Other awards to his name include the UK Shell Livewire Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Wales and West Country Entrepreneur of the Year Award, NatWest Entrepreneur of the Year Award and Daily Mail Enterprising Young Brit.

For all media and speaking enquiries, please contact Brian MacLaurin or Rania Elhefian on 020 8834 1806 or email rania@brianmaclaurin.com Check out, and contribute to, his Wikipedia biography here.