Mark Abayomi Esho MBE (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. [1]
Mark Abayomi Esho MBE (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. [1]
Esho was born in Leicestershire in 1962. At the age of five, he contracted polio, leaving him paralysed from the neck down. [2] He was originally given a 10% chance of survival, but was eventually able to regain limited mobility. [3]
Esho moved to 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. [3]
Esho worked for seven years in Leicester as a Service Manager for Mosaic, a local charity. [1] Due to chronic fatigue caused by his childhood polio, he decided to start his own business instead of continuing a nine-to-five job. [2]
Esho started Houses-Online in 1999, a property listing website. [2] 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 and The Co-operative Group. [1]
In the following years, Esho developed two companies simultaneously: Easy Internet Services (search engine optimisation, now under the name 123 Ranking) [4] and Easy Internet Solutions (later Free Virtual Servers, later FVS Hosting). [5] Both businesses were early adopters of employing remote workers, and Esho has been a vocal supporter of remote monitoring software for employees. [6]
In 2020, Mark co-founded 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. [7]
Esho was the winner of first ever National Diversity Award for Business Excellence in September 2012. [8] [9] [10] Easy Internet went on to sponsor the National Diversity Awards in Leeds the following year. [11] In October 2012, he presented the Young Person Award at the 11th African and African Caribbean Achievement Awards. [12]
In February 2013, Esho was interviewed on BBC Radio Leicester about his own story and government support for disabled jobseekers. [13] In July 2013, Esho met with Prime Minister David Cameron and featured as a case study as part of the government's Disability Confident programme. [14] [15] [16] 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. [17] [18]
In November 2013, Esho was part of the judging panel for the Leicester Mercury's "Leicestershire's Young Business Executive of the Year Award". [19]
In 2016, Easy Internet Solutions became a patron of the Leicestershire Law Society. [20] Later the same year, Esho was nominated at the Institute of Directors East Midlands Director of the Year Awards, which took place on 30 June 2016. [21] He was awarded a Highly Commended certificate in the category of "Director of the Year SME – Small". [22] [23]
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. [24]
Esho was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to business. [25]
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. [26]
In 2018, Mark's first book, 'I Can. I Will.' was published by Rethink Press. [27] 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. [28] Esho covers topics such as racial discrimination and disability and ends each chapter with a reflection on his struggles and lessons he has learned. [29] 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. [30] This was followed by a London launch hosted at Rotary HQ and attended by the Rotary polio ambassador Konnie Huq. [31]
Esho is a keen player and supporter of wheelchair sports teams. [2] His company Easy Internet Services has sponsored The Leicester Cobras, a local wheelchair basketball club and charity, for a number of years. [2] [32] Esho has also participated in several wheelchair tennis tournaments. He was involved in the first ever Loughborough Wheelchair Tennis Open at Loughborough University in 2014, and the first Grantham Tennis Club wheelchair tournament in August 2015. [33] [34]
Leicestershire is a 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, Warwickshire to the south-west, and Staffordshire to the west. The city of Leicester is the largest settlement and the county town.
Loughborough is a market town in the Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council, and the location of Loughborough University. At the 2021 census the town's built-up area had a population of 64,884, the second largest in the county after Leicester. Loughborough is close to the Nottinghamshire border and short distances from Leicester, Nottingham, East Midlands Airport, and Derby. It has the world's largest bell foundry, John Taylor Bellfounders, which produced Great Paul at St Paul's Cathedral, as well as making bells for the Carillon War Memorial, a landmark in the Queens Park in the town, and for York Minster.
Leicester railway station is a mainline railway station in the city of Leicester in Leicestershire, England. The station is managed by East Midlands Railway and owned by Network Rail. The station is served by CrossCountry and East Midlands Railway services.
Andrew John Reed is a British Labour Co-operative politician who was the Member of Parliament for the key marginal Constituency of Loughborough from 1997 to 2010. Reed was awarded the OBE in June 2012 for service to the community and sport in Leicestershire.
Belgrave is an area, suburb, electoral ward and administrative division of the city of Leicester, England. Belgrave is the location of and known for the National Space Centre, Space Park Leicester, the Golden Mile and Belgrave Hall.
The Ivanhoe line was the local passenger service operated on the Midland Main Line between Leicester and Loughborough between 1993, when three intermediate stations were re-opened, and June 2005, when the separate Leicester–Loughborough service was withdrawn. Intermediate stations on the route are now served by East Midlands Railway's hourly service between Leicester, Nottingham and Lincoln.
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 present title.
Glenfield Hospital, formally known as Glenfield General Hospital, is situated near Glenfield, on the outskirts of Leicester. It is one of England's main hospitals for coronary care and respiratory diseases. It is a tertiary referral university teaching hospital, with a strong international reputation for medical research in cardiac and respiratory health. It is managed by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
Loughborough railway station is a Grade II listed railway station in the town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, on the Midland Main Line, 111 miles (179 km) north of London St Pancras. The station is north-east of the town centre.
Adedoyin Olayiwola "Ade" Adepitan is a Nigerian-born British television presenter and wheelchair basketball player. As a presenter, he has hosted a range of travel documentaries and sports programmes for BBC television. Adepitan is a disability advocate and one of the first physically disabled television presenters in the UK, with a career of over 20 years.
The Leicester Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival held in a number of venues across Leicester, England early in the year.
Frog Island is an inner city area of Leicester, England, so named because it lies between the River Soar and the Soar Navigation. Frog Island is adjacent to the Woodgate area to the north, and Northgates to the South. The population of the island was at the 2011 census in the Abbey ward of Leicester City Council.
John Stuart Bloor is a British billionaire businessman. His business, Bloor Holdings, owns both Bloor Homes and Triumph Motorcycles.
Skylink is the brand name for bus services that serve East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire. Services are presently operated by Kinchbus and trentbarton, both a part of Derbyshire-based Wellglade Group.
Central England Co-operative, trading as Central Co-op, is a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, based in Lichfield and which trades from over 400 sites across the English Midlands and East Anglia. The business is owned and democratically controlled by its members who can stand for election to the board and who also share in the society's profits. A proportion of the profits of the business are also invested in local community groups through its community dividend grants programme and its more than 60 member classes.
The Leicestershire Rugby Union (LRU) is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland in England. The union is the constituent body of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) for those counties. The LRU administers and organises rugby union clubs and competitions in those two counties and administers the Leicestershire county rugby representative teams.
Loughborough Foxes Women & Girls Football Club is a football club based in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. They are currently members of the FA Women's National League North and play at the Loughborough University Stadium.
County Hall is a municipal building on Leicester Road in Glenfield, Leicestershire. It is the headquarters of Leicestershire County Council.
Cotes Mill is a Grade II listed 16th-century water mill on the banks of the River Soar in Cotes, Leicestershire. The first recorded mention of the mill was in the Domesday Survey in 1086.
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