Ed Bussey

Ed Bussey is a fascinating personality. He’s held positions in the Royal Navy and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office diplomatic service. He’s trekked to the North Pole. An internet retail trailblazer – he was a member of the founding team of early online clothing retailer Figleaves.com – and three-time digital start-up entrepreneur, he has had a storied career and developed a wealth of expertise in the retail and technology sectors. He was dubbed Great British Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015, and ranked in the 2016 Sunday Times list of Debretts’ 500 most influential people in Britain.  A passionate, articulate and arresting speaker, he brings authority and insight to any stage or conversation.

Ed is Chief Solutions Officer at Jellyfish and the founder & formerly CEO at Quill, a disruptive, fast-growth digital content production company, addressing a £10bn+ pa and growing global market for multi-language ecommerce content. In 2021, Quill merged with digital transformation agency Jellyfish, to become its global Performance Content capability.

Ed launched Quil in 2011, drawing on his considerable ecommerce experience to lead the development of the company’s unique content production model – described by Econsultancy as the ‘future of content’.

Quill’s model leverages a highly flexible, global network of 12,000+ freelance content creators working 24/7/365, centrally managed through the Quill Cloud platform: pioneering technology that streamlines  complex workflows to enable the production of written and visual content, in any language, at unparalleled speed and scale.

In recognition of its rapid growth, Quill was ranked in the 2016 Deloitte Fast 50 listing of the UK’s fastest-growing technology businesses, and again in the 2017 Deloitte 2017 Technology Fast 500 EMEA rankings. Most recently, Quill was awarded 341st position in the 2018 FT1000 list of Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies.

Prior to launching Quill, Ed held the position of Chief Operating Officer at ZYB, an award-winning mobile social networking business, with responsibility for marketing, business development and operations. In 2007, Business Week called ZYB’s service one of the 10 most innovative mobile products of the year. ZYB was later acquired by Vodafone Plc in 2008.

In 2000, Ed became part of the founding team and Global Marketing Director for online clothing retailer Figleaves.com. Ed launched Figleaves.com into the US and acquired over a million online customers across 66 countries. In 2004, Figleaves.com was named “UK Internet Retailer of the Year”. In 2010, the company was bought by N Brown Plc.

After an international education, Ed began his career in the Royal Navy. He saw service in the Middle East, Falklands and the US. Following this, Ed held various high-level security and counter-terrorism appointments around the world with the UK diplomatic service.

Ed is part of the London Stock Exchange ELITE programmeand an active participant in the Tech London Advocates community, as well as being a regular speaker at conferences around the world. Speaking on entrepreneurship and the challenges of building fast-growth digital businesses (particularly across new geographical markets), Ed advises on the rapidly evolving internet, content marketing trends, retail trends and new technologies.

Outside of the business sphere, Ed maintains a keen interest in outdoor pursuits and endurance events. At 21, Ed was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for his mountaineering expeditions and extreme endurance event participation.He has completed expeditions or events in a variety of places including Bhutan, the Indian Himalayas, Alaska, Costa Rica, and southern Africa. In 2010, he completed an unsupported trek to the North Pole to raise money for the Global Angels charity.