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Manchester businessman and boss of a cloud services provider Lawrence Jones has been named as an MBE in the 2015 New Year’s Honours List.
The entrepreneur joins the list of honours for his services to the digital economy throughout the 15 years he’s been at hosting, cloud service/data centre provider and colocation firm UKFast.
In 2014 Jones committed £100,000 to a ‘Year of Giving’ at UKFast – helping charities from the Diane Modahl Sports Foundation to setting up an internet café in a community centre in South Africa.
He has focused on creating a rewarding office space for his 200-strong team, with an on-site gym, steam room and crèche, as well as incentives and rewards including trips to Las Vegas, skiing in Verbier and inductions in the Welsh mountains.
Jones said: “As an entrepreneur you find yourself carrying on regardless, working your hardest, even when there are not many people who pat you on the back. So it’s an emotional moment to receive something like this from the Government, the Queen and country.
“Britain is an amazing nation and I don’t believe there’s another like it on the planet. We are an extraordinary bunch of people with strength and humility. I am tremendously proud to be British and to get an honour like this makes all of the hard work worthwhile. Whilst UKFast is tiny and turns over £30 million at the moment, we’re growing and will continue to grow. Our job is to accelerate our growth and that of our customers, whilst maintaining the great British service we supply.”
Other techies recognised in the 2015 New Year’s Honours List include Dr Robert Anthony Day, CTO at Jisc and Technologies and Executive Director at Janet, as well as Keith Russell Paterson for services to promoting IT to elderly people in the UK.
