Malcolm Stuart Bell (born December 1981) is a British businessman, best known as co-founder of Zaggora, a sportswear company valued at £100M according to the Evening Standard.[1][2][3] He has received several awards including the Orange National Business Awards in 2012.[4][5] He has been a speaker at various events including TED (conference), Barclays, Facebook, Saïd Business School and Retail Week.[6][7] He also mentors aspiring entrepreneurs through the New Entrepreneurs Foundation and Seedcamp.[8][9][10]
Malcolm Bell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Malcolm Stuart Bell December 1981 (age 42) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | co-founder, Zaggora |
| Spouse | Dessi Bell |
| Parent | Sir Stuart Bell |
Early life
editMalcolm Stuart Bell was born in December 1981,[11] the son of British politician Sir Stuart Bell.[12]
Career
editBell began working as a website designer for local companies at age 15.[citation needed] In 2005, he graduated from the London School of Economics, and started working in investment management.[citation needed]
In 2011 he co-founded Zaggora alongside his wife, entrepreneur Dessi Bell.[13]
Bell left Zaggora in 2013, and in 2014 he founded Mailcloud, a cloud tech business that raised 2.8m in committed capital from Octopus Holdings Limited, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kima Ventures, and Seedcamp.[citation needed] Bell has spoken at events for Google, Facebook, Barclays, TED, the Harvard Business School, and others.[citation needed] He mentors portfolio companies at Seedcamp.[14][15]
Controversy
editMalcom Bell appeared in ToryBoy The Movie where he was filmed arguing with and assaulting John Walsh.[citation needed]
In 2002, Malcolm Bell was jailed for stealing £8,000 from his father's colleagues. Malcolm Bell, the son of Stuart Bell, the MP for Middlesbrough, took blank cheques from the office of George Galloway while working for his father as a researcher in the House of Commons.[16]
Elaine Sims, appearing for the prosecution, told the court that Bell went to work as usual on 31 August last year (2001) at Portcullis House, opposite the Houses of Parliament. But when he went into a neighbouring office of Geraldine Clerck, Mr Galloway's secretary, he took four cheques belonging to Finjan, a company associated with Mr Galloway at the time the MP for Glasgow Kelvin.[citation needed]
On the same day Bell made out one of the cheques for £350 to himself and paid it into a branch of HSBC bank. He then bought an Egyptian figurine over the internet for £1,788 using the name of Dr Mustafa. The teenager wrote out another of the stolen cheques and arranged for the statue to be delivered to his office in Westminster.[citation needed]
On 8 October he made out a further cheque payable to himself, for a sum of £500, but the bank returned it unpaid. He made a mistake in completing the fourth cheque and threw it away.[citation needed]
Police alerted to the theft searched Bell's home in Richmond upon Thames and found the Egyptian figurine on his mantelpiece. Bell admitted theft, obtaining property by deception, obtaining a money transfer by deception and attempting to obtain a money transfer by deception.[citation needed]
Bell also stole nearly £4,000 from Alan Whitehead MP, and computer equipment worth over £2,000 from Nigel Jones MP, Oona King MP and Ann Winterton MP while he was working in Portcullis House, near the Houses of Parliament. He subsequently sold the computer equipment through an internet auction site and deposited the proceeds into his bank account.[16]
He was jailed for 60 days.[17]
References
edit- ^ "'Sweat and tweets made our sports clothing into £100m hot property'". The Evening Standard. 23 May 2013.
- ^ "A start-up that is fit for purpose". Financial Times.
- ^ "How to make your millions on Facebook". SME Insider.
- ^ "Zaggora HotPants Founder Malcolm Bell Says He Owes Success To His Wife". Huffington Post. 6 November 2012.
- ^ "'Sweat and tweets made our sports clothing into £100m hot property'". Evening Standard. 23 May 2013.
- ^ "2016 Conference". Oxford Inspires.
- ^ "Disney failed, and here's why you should too". Hot Topics.
- ^ Gaudoin, Tina. "Shifting to High-Tech Gear". WSJ.
- ^ "Dessislava Bell and Malcolm Bell: Zaggora". Startups. 18 September 2013.
- ^ "Malcolm Bell". Seedcamp.
- ^ "Malcolm Stuart BELL - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
- ^ Langdon, Julia (14 October 2012). "Sir Stuart Bell obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
- ^ "Dessi Bell: I 'Googled up' my hotpants business Zaggora". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012.
- ^ "Malcolm Bell". Seedcamp.
- ^ "Is Your Business Good or Great". National Business Awards.
- ^ a b "MP's son jailed for Commons theft". BBC News. 7 March 2002. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
- ^ "MP's son admits theft charge". 2002. Retrieved 21 January 2018.