Will King: King of Shaves

Born and brought up in Lowestoft, Suffolk, King was the eldest of three boys and spent all his time on the water, qualifying as the UK’s youngest sailing instructor and set his sights on working in the industry.

After failing his A Levels at the local comprehensive, he spent a year sailing in New Zealand before returning to Portsmouth Polytechnic to study mechanical engineering.

Although he gained his degree, he recognised he was unlikely to make a career in the industry and moved to London where his first job was selling advertising space for Marketing Magazine.

From there he moved into corporate events and marketing communications, before the recession of the early 1990s brought marketing spend to a halt and he was made redundant. Not one to sit still for long, the fledgling King of Shaves business was born when he spotted an opportunity to move into the men’s grooming market and soon moved from kitchen table to full-scale production.

Today, King, who has one son and is married to his second wife, advertising creative director Tiger Savage, is a successful entrepreneur and regarded as one of the UK’s leading practitioners in the use of social media from a company and brand perspective.