James Murray Wells

James Nicholas Murray Wells OBE (born March 1983 ) is an English entrepreneur and was founder, owner and executive chairman of Prescription Eyewear Limited (trading as Glasses Direct), London, which he started whilst at university in 2004 and sold to Cipio Partners in 2013. At the time of the sale, the business had grown to employ more than 150 people, with sales of £29.9m in the year ending April 2013 and was selling to 50 overseas markets. He is currently Industry Head of Retail at Google UK.

Early life Murray Wells attended Harrow School before attending the University of the West of England to study English, with the intention of studying Law subsequently.

His father is an investment analyst and his maternal grandfather, Wendell Clough, helped bring Ford and Chrysler to the UK.

Glasses Direct While studying for his final university examinations, Murray Wells discovered that he needed to start wearing spectacles. Surprised by the high price quoted by an optician, he contacted first manufacturers and then individual workers until a technician told him that a pair of glasses selling for £150 costs only £7 to make. Inspired by this, he created a website selling spectacles directly to the public, initially funding his business using the remains of his student loan, he joined the small existing group of online spectacles retailers in the UK's traditionally highly controlled, arguably oligopolist spectacles market. When the business was sold, revenue was expected to break £35m in sales in 2014.

Awards Murray Wells won the 2005 Shell LiveWIRE award for entrepreneurship, the 2005 Startup Award, the 2005 Wales and West Country Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 2005 Natwest Business of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the 2006 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Young Entrepreneur Award.

Murray Wells was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, (OBE), in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to business.

Promotion of entrepreneurship In addition to his involvement with the taper relief campaign, Murray Wells has been a keynote speaker at the Federation of Small Businesses annual conference and has taken part in events aimed at promoting entrepreneurship to school children. He took part in organizing a Flash Crowd event as part of this campaign.

He was one of 68 business leaders to publicly pledge their support to Conservative proposals to reverse part of Labours planned National Insurance rise in the run up to the 2010 General Election This became a key issue in the campaign.

He was also a co-founder of StartUp Britain, which was announced in the 2010 budget by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, and launched by David Cameron as an initiative conceived at 10 Downing Street, the aim of which is to inspire entrepreneurs and influence the government's business agenda.

Murray Wells has served as an advisor on business and enterprise to both the UK's then Labour Party government and the then Conservative Party opposition. As a member of the New Enterprise Council, he was an advisor for the then Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne.