Insights from former CEO, John Williams

From Trawling Nets to IP Networks: A look back from our previous CEO, John Williams

Before John entered the IP world, he was hauling crab pots off the Norfolk coast, running a soft furnishings shop with his wife, and navigating the unpredictable tides of entrepreneurship. In this reflection, our former CEO shares the winding path that led from deep sea trawling to the boardrooms of EIP—offering lessons in resilience, reinvention, and the power of partnership!

What’s your career story?

After leaving my local state grammar school I attended Norwich City College and studied for an OND in Hotel Management and worked at the Links Hotel, West Runton, Norfolk, near where I lived. I then spent 3 years at Sunderland Teacher Training College studying English Literature and education subjects before teaching in Leicester for one academic year. I enjoyed teaching but saw no future for me as I had a spirit of adventure, and the pay was very poor.

I then went deep sea trawling from Lowestoft for a few years obtaining my second mate’s ticket and other seamanship qualifications. During this time I met my wife Kay. Trawling was not compatible with marriage, so I started my own business as an inshore fisherman, catching mainly crabs and lobsters but also cod, herring, bass and sea trout, owning my own boat and gear and supplying the catch direct to fishmongers, restaurants and hotels, adding value in my back yard and kitchen by cooking and dressing the daily catch. Kay gave up her job as a civil servant and joined me in the seafood business to help with the home-based processing. I also went into partnership with a friend selling cockles, mussels, whelks, prawns and dressed crabs round the local pubs.

This went well and demand for dressed, ready to eat crab was very strong. We opened a crab processing factory called The Cromer Crab Company in the early eighties, supplying the products nationally to wholesalers and within a few years were supplying direct to UK supermarkets. I sold the boat and gear to concentrate on developing the factory.

The processing, like the fishing, was seasonal and, after a couple of winters studying philosophy and economics at the University of East Anglia, Kay and I bought a shop, flat and workshop and opened and ran a soft furnishing business, living above the shop with our two children. We made curtains, sofas, and chairs and offered a reupholstery service selling high quality fabrics such as Sanderson and Liberty. Both businesses were doing well and after a few years we were able to move from the flat to a new house, which we built and in which we still live.

We sold the seafood business to a PLC in the early nineties and I was retained as Managing Director. We were by then processing additional imported raw seafoods producing ‘ready to eat’ products for every UK retail chain including M&S. We were busy all year round. Under this arrangement I was not permitted to be involved in the furnishings business, so Kay then ran it and also helped with the administration at Cromer Crab. After a couple of years we bought the seafood company back as a management buy-out, backed by UBS venture capital arm, Phildrew Ventures. This went well and we built a brand-new factory in Cromer. I retired from the business in 2000. We also sold the furnishings business around the same time. (The seafood business was eventually sold in 2008 finishing any connection I had with it).

It was a new millennium and I felt ready for something new.

How did you end up in IP?

My daughter had been completing her A levels during this period and her then boyfriend was the son of a Patent and Trademark Attorney who she had met at 6th Form College in Norwich. The attorney was Bill Jones who had sold his Norwich based business to Markgraaf 3 years earlier and was at the end of his non-compete period. When he heard I had retired from the seafood business he called me expressing a desire to start another IP business and would I be interested in joining him.

We started ip21 in January 2001 and from a standing start built a profitable local practice and after two acquisitions opened in London in 2005. We recruited Adam Wylie at the start to help with the business development effort. I had known Adam since 1985 and met him coincidentally on his return from living in the USA. Adam went on to work at EIP and then later at Patently. We originally met Jerome in 2002 when he agreed to produce a patent application for one of our new Cambridge based clients following a recommendation from one of our own attorneys.

By 2008 ip21 was doing very well but Bill was not as ambitious for the business as me. He bought me out at the end of that year. Ip21 still operates out of Norwich and Bill has recently retired.

How did you get your job as CEO of EIP?

Three months after I sold out, I had a call from Jerome and Heather following a kind recommendation from Adam Wylie who had moved on to IP Pragmatics in Chancery Lane. They asked if I could meet them in London to discuss how Kay and I might be able to add value to their growing business. We agreed to help and I became a non-executive director (NED), working for a few hours each week and Kay helped with the bookkeeping and debt collection.

I also had four other NED roles, some of which were in London, so Kay and I decided to buy a flat in E17. It was during this time that I helped prepare EIP for growth, firstly changing EIP to a limited liability partnership, then as we grew, opening in Cardiff and Leeds, new offices for Bath, expanding the London office and starting in the USA. By 2012 I was working more hours at EIP and, given my other roles, I suggested that we recruit a full time CEO. However, I knew the business well and had been involved in building the management team and support functions. After much deliberation I proposed to the Executive Members that I might take on the role. They agreed and I resigned my other NED jobs to concentrate on continuing to build the business. I became an Executive Member with the CEO job title from April 2013.

What was it like being the CEO and what growth did you see during your time at EIP?

The most difficult part of moving from NED to CEO was that I went from ‘advisor’ to an accountable officer of the business, chairing Members’ meetings and debating direction with a very intelligent, educated and articulate group of people. However, it was a pleasure to fulfil the role and during the ensuing years we saw continued growth (with a few setbacks on the way), the start of EIP Legal, the opening of Dusseldorf and, from when I had joined as NED in 2009, close to a ten-fold increase in revenue and a five- fold increase in staff. I made it my business to know every member of staff, partaking in all annual appraisals and recruitment. We built a strong and well-motivated management team who were quick to respond to the changing circumstances that occur in a rapidly growing business. We began to be ranked as a firm in Legal 500 and others and won the Queen’s Award for Export for the business we sent to the US. The first class, well managed attorney and solicitor teams made EIP a top tier provider!

How do you see EIP now?

Still a top tier provider, uncompromising in the pursuit of providing the best possible service to clients. There has been further consolidation of the firm’s reputation as an excellent patent prosecution and litigation operator, with some of the best attorney’s and solicitors in the UK, US, Germany and more recently Sweden.

What's a career highlight for you?

It is difficult to think of only one as I had a long and varied working life. So before EIP, the selling of the Cromer Crab Company twice and during the EIP period being part and seeing the outcomes of a very hard working and ambitious team and the resulting camaraderie.

Do you still keep in contact with people at the firm?

I still enjoy regular calls and meetings with Heather and Jerome and am a close friend of Adam Wylie. My son in law is Martin Bruce who worked at EIP in marketing and business development for many years. I periodically play music with Iain Russell and have performed with my band at his ‘Defibfest’ which raises money for provision of Defibrillator machines in public places.

If you could go back and give your past self-one tip before starting out, what would it be?

As I started with very little capital, I’d say ‘be better funded before you start’. It’s a long hard road.

Do you have advice for anyone with similar career aspirations?

A difficult question as my career has been a bit unusual but you don’t need to go deep sea trawling. However, that experience gave me a strength to deal with some of the most worrying times in business. Find someone like Kay with whom to share your ambitions and life. Be lucky.