Ross Williams, 33
Company: Global Personals
Web: www.globalpersonals.co.uk
No-one has benefited from the online dating explosion more than Ross Williams. Eight years after setting up his own web-based dating service, Global Personals, Williams now owns a portfolio of sites which includes Singles365.com and Datingagency.com, backed up by a white label service which counts The Independent and Cosmopolitan as clients. Global Personals is now firmly entrenched as Europe’s largest privately owned dating company; revenue has grown almost 4400% over the past five years, and more than 6.6m use Williams’ various sites. Having relegated the previously dominant match.com to second place in the UK’s online dating sector, few would doubt that Global Personals has the potential to maintain this amazing rate of growth in the years ahead.