Jackson grew up in a rough neighborhood, and began learning martial arts to defend himself. We speak to Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy Group, the technology-to-investment energy platform, about the importance of government intervention in energy policy, the role of technology, and how a greener future could be nearer than we think. A lot of people have different views of what it means to be an entrepreneur and if this is different from being a businessman or woman. Cheap energy bills arent coming back this decade, Christopher Harborne: the silent donor behind Brexit and Boris Johnson, Sherif Tawfik: The Middle East and Africa are ready to lead on the climate, The power trap: Why the energy crisis is a crisis of politics, Elon Musk was never really the worlds richest man, Why Jeremy Hunt is gambling with thousands of small businesses, The year woke broke: a brief history of a contested word, Why Britains economy has never been worse, with Duncan Weldon, The good social network: what Twitter could learn from the coffeehouse Audio Long Reads, Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance, HR, Training and Organisational Development, Information and Communications Technology, Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives, Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities, Science and Technical Research and Development. The boss of Octopus Energy has a small tub, which pleases him as it is efficient and fills quickly. We want a similar effort to the vaccine rollout, says Jackson, sweeping bags of Frazzles aside. In May 2020, her team launched the Electric Juice Charging Network, the UK's first consolidated network of charge point providers that allows users to charge their EVs across the UK with all costs appearing on a single bill. Jackson said that Octopus would be monitoring GB News content to ensure the channel would not be in breach of Octopus' advertising policy. I read an article recently where you said Octopus Energy dont have a HR department. The migration was hailed as being responsible for E.ON's financial recovery in the UK. Gregory Jackson is an American mixed martial arts trainer who co-owns Jackson Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, widely considered one of the top MMA training centers in the world. [31], In November 2021, EDF Energy agreed a deal with Octopus Energy Group to move its five million customers onto its Kraken platform. These are things we should do everything to avoid., He believes the energy crisis has underscored the need for Britain to move away from oil and gas. Building on the award winning end-to-end entech platform, Kraken Utilities will create customer centricity and automated, scalable and efficient operations for other traditionally low-tech sectors, allowing innovation at pace. We are doing the same thing in clean, green energy. Before joining Octopus, Rachel served as the Chief Executive of Ofwat, the UK's water regulator, and as a Senior Partner and Board member of Ofgem, the UK energy regulator. What inspired this leadership technique and what are the pros and cons of Octopus Energy not having a HR department? [12][13], In both 2018 and 2019, Octopus was the only energy supplier to earn "Recommended Provider" status from the Which? The other key difference between Octopus and other utilities companies is technology. Octopus Energy has a multi faceted business model, generating value from different revenue streams. Rebecca holds a Bachelor's degree from Nottingham University Business School. He began his working life as a video games programmer and always fancied a stint as a motorcycle courier (electric, of course).. We scaled the business by repeatedly cloning micro businesses, and what works for us wont work for other businesses. In our experience this leads to strong relationships between managers and team members, happier employees and higher productivity. [5], By April 2018, the company had 198,000 customers and had made an energy procurement deal with Shell. What impact has the pandemic had on Octopus Energy and how have they navigated this? [20], In November 2020 Octopus acquired Manchester-based smart grid energy software company Upside Energy, which in June 2021 rebranded as KrakenFlex. 464 views May 4, 2022 Greg Jackson is the founder and chief executive of Octopus Energy, one of the UK's fastest-growing energy companies. You need to ask yourself these questions when defining your success. The current energy crisis emerged towards the end of the legal work and due diligence that is needed for such a deal to happen, and provided a dramatic test of the companys ability to handle a large, rapidly developing challenge: We had to demonstrate to the investors that taking on Avro wouldnt get in the way of the long-term mission.. Greg: When I meet all of our new starters - which I always make sure to do during introductory training - the ones that stand out to me are the ones that ask themselves what they can do for the company, rather than what the company can do for them, they look at their own skills and wants, see what they can bring to the table and do their best. In September 2021, Octopus Energy Group was valued at approximately $5 billion following a $600 million investment from Generation Investment Management and a $300 million investment from Canada Pensions Plan Investments Board. As 31 energy firms went bust since the start of last year, public ire has been directed at the bosses of failed challengers. The company also supplies software services to other energy suppliers. Jon played a key role in establishing leading Australian challengers Simply Energy (now part of Engie) and Alinta East Coast retail holding a number of senior roles across operations, customer experience and market development. Greg is also a strong advocate of maintaining a good work-life balance with his work-life blend, which to him means creating a symbiotic, rather than a compartmentalised relationship between his various work commitments and personal life, so he can remain present in all of them. . Greg: While we cant change who our founders are, our leadership team is made up of 50% women, with BAME, LGBT+ and working class representation throughout. He began his career at consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble before running businesses including a coffee shop and a mirror manufacturer. Greg's vision of using technology to disrupt the energy market has enabled Octopus Energy to create tariffs which unlock the power of the green grid - offering cheaper electricity when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. And I genuinely hope they all go on to great things, even if thats not necessarily at Octopus Energy. [61] In May 2021 it was announced that E.ON had completed the migration of all two million former npower customers to its Kraken-powered E.ON Next customer service platform. My Entrepreneurial Journey with Greg Jackson on Thursday, 21 November. Last month Octopus pledged 50m to cut customer bills until Octobers price cap rise, part of a longer-term package worth 150m. The contemporary Jackson-Wink MMA Academy won the same award in 2015.[9]. He has never taken a bonus, and owns a 6% stake, worth about 240m. Internally its called Winder (wind-Tinder, geddit?). [33], In December 2020, Tokyo Gas paid about 20 billion yen ($193 million) for a 9.7% stake in Octopus, valuing the company at $2.1bn. His school officially turned into an MMA school in 2000. Could Octopus become another Bulb? Is it profit, value or something else? Greg Jackson is CEO/Founder at Octopus Energy Ltd. See Greg Jackson's compensation, career history, education, & memberships. Greg Jackson starts each day by flicking on the radio and scrunching into his bath. [3][4][5][6] Jackson has trained many successful fighters, including former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre, former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm, former Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans, and a roster of other UFC contenders and World Extreme Cagefighting champions. You can meet Greg Jackson and hear more about where he got where he is today at My Entrepreneurial Journey with Greg Jackson on Thursday, 21 November. The green energy firms founder on his sympathy for those struggling with bills and his exasperation at net zero opponents. Greg: Dont get me wrong, profit and value are incredibly important to a companys life-cycle, but happiness should be put above all else. Our middle management team in operations - which makes up most of our team - fares even better, being made up of 80% women and most of them have been with us from the first 50 employees we hired, showing that people are happy here and like to stay. A relaxed evening talking with Greg Jackson, the founder and Phil Steele Future Technology Evangelist of Octopus Energy.You can email the Octopus team as ref. Jackson explains need for market reform to move to renewable energy sooner. Three Co-op brands were affected: Octopus acquired the customers of the GB Energy and Flow Energy brands, and began to operate the accounts of Co-op Energy customers on a white label basis, while Midcounties retained responsibility for acquiring new Co-op Energy customers. As a company we are completely digital, so we asked everybody to take their laptops home on Friday, and when lockdown was announced on Monday, our team just plugged the headsets into their laptops and continued working as usual. What would you say are the most important traits business leaders should possess to be successful? Please refresh the page and try again. Octopus is his magnum opus, taking on the tired, old energy market . One business C360 that was subsequently acquired, was founded to pioneer a new way of using technology to drive marketing or as Greg puts it SaaS before it was trendy. Greg is also an investor in several tech start-ups and as an advisor, supports companies and entrepreneurs with fundraising, mergers, acquisitions and strategy. Despite the current crisis of price and supply in the gas market, its described by BP as resilient and by Centrica as more affordable than other energy sources. Nov 2, 2022. Greg Jackson isnt your average energy company CEO. Jackson declined to comment on it. Greg is the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Group, the green energy tech pioneer based in the UK with over 3.1 million customers, further operations in 13 countries and over 23 million accounts licensed worldwide to its green technology platform, Kraken. As of September 2021 the company has over three million domestic and business customers, making it the fourth largest energy supplier My mum is very, very politically opinionated and I have that., Jackson wont be drawn on how long the energy crisis will last: Its a fool that predicts commodity markets. [7] The same year, Octopus replaced SSE as the energy supplier for M&S Energy, a brand of Marks & Spencer,[8] and bought Affect Energy, which had 22,000 customers. [25], In 2021, Octopus built the UK's first R&D and training centre for the decarbonisation of heat. Do you have any influences that have inspired your entrepreneurial journey and how? [6] Later in 2018, Octopus gained the 100,000 customers of Iresa Limited, under Ofgem's "supplier of last resort" process, after Iresa ceased trading. How we work John moved from managing Affect Energy to running Octopus' engineering fleet and developing the UK's first Heat Pump Research & Development Centre, along with the proposition to train over 1,000 heat pump engineers a year and produce 1,000 heat pumps a month through the new Octopus Energy factory in Northern Ireland. Love building organisations around people, disrupting industries which underserve customers and society. I also have had non-executive and chairman roles at peer-to-peer lender Zopa and Consultant Connect. A day later, Generation Investment Management, a fund chaired by Al Gore, committed to a $600m investment in Octopus. Octopus Energy was established in August 2015 as a subsidiary of Octopus Capital Limited. Climate change is no longer this vague thing: people are literally baking in India and Pakistan, he says. She spent some time consulting for a FTSE 100 energy company, followed by a secondment to the Department for the Energy & Climate Change (DECC), and then launching market-leading connected home products - starting at British start-up Alert Me, who became part of the leading smart home provider Hive, a British Gas innovation. What we have to do now is a million times more complicated., The result of this simplified central planning could be seen the previous week, when electricity prices were colossally high, we were having to use lots of back-up supplies [and] we were literally paying wind generators in Scotland to turn off, because there werent enough cables connecting Scotland, where the electricity was being generated, to England, where we needed it., The solution, he says, is for the energy grid to become more like the internet. What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs? took on 600,000 customers from bust Avro Energy, a small noisy group, including Nigel Farage, attacking net zero goals. I dont just want them to come in and do things for the company. London Tuesday 8th November - This evening, the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, Greg Jackson, joined consumer champion Martin Lewis on his flagship TV show on ITV. Quick and essential guide to domestic and global politics from the New Statesman's politics team. Rachels remit is to create the regulations and markets needed to achieve net zero quickly and affordably. [22], In February 2021, CEO Greg Jackson said on a BBC News interview that Octopus does not operate a human resources department. Specialties: Technology. Interview with Entrepreneur - Greg Jackson - CEO of Octopus Energy. Greg Jackson, CEO Greg Jackson Founder Octopus Energy agrees $600m deal with former-VP Al Gore backed sustainable investment fund We're over the moon to be able to announce our $600 million partnership with Generation Investment Management, a sustainable investment fund, co-chaired by former US Vice-President and climate champion Al Gore. Greg is an experienced digital entrepreneur, passionate about using technology to make positive change. Sign up to receive information regarding NS events, subscription offers & product updates. The project, which coincided with COP26, was realised in Glasgow through collaboration with the local art community, and was designed as a call for global leaders to invest in renewable energies such as solar PV, in order to power a sustainable future. The UKs biggest energy companies might shrug off such strident criticism from a campaigner, but Octopus has rapidly ascended to challenge what Jackson, 50, calls the lazy oligopoly of the big six. Greg: Weve been rapidly growing and in December closed our second financing round with Tokyo Gas and Origin Energy in 2020, which increased our valuation to more than $2 billion. On February 5, 2013, Jackson signed with Bellator to coach on the promotion's reality series titled Fight Master: Bellator MMA.[10]. [7] In 2007, Jackson teamed up with striking coach Mike Winkeljohn, which was a seminal moment for Jackson's academy; since then, the gym has been known as Jackson Wink MMA Academy (JW MMA Academy),[8] representing the partnership between Jackson and Winkeljohn. Youll be able to fuel your car for free, make steel for free, do indoor farming with virtually zero energy costs. But the current reality is that in government, too, the pace of change is frustratingly slow: a wind farm can be built in 12 months, and an undersea cable between the UK and France can be laid in ten days, but approval and grid connections can take years. Rebecca came to Octopus Energy following an eight-year career at UK energy company British Gas. In 72 hours, the six-year-old company had swelled to accommodate more customers than Scottish Power (to 3.1 million in total) and a higher valuation (approaching $5bn) than Centrica, the owner of British Gas. There is growing evidence that diverse workforces are more productive than non-diverse workforces. A weekly newsletter helping you fit together the pieces of the global economic slowdown. We have a technology licensing business with big customers like E.ON and EDF, and weve invested in generation and a heat pump centre. Contact. This interview was originally published on our sister platform, ChangeinAfrica Magazine, the content is wholly owned by Innoglo Ltd. Mon - Fri: Respond with 24 hrs There are bright pink octopus toys dotted around the half-full offices, and crisps and sweets on a communal table. Were in a double crisis now: a cost crisis, and a carbon crisis. Greg Jackson founded Octopus Energy in 2015 with a view to using technology to make the green energy revolution faster and cheaper for consumers. He began developing software (in the form of video games) at 16, then studied economics at Cambridge before running a mirror factory, then founding a number of technology-led businesses. He writes on a range of topics including inflation, Brexit, the Bank of England, the world of work and the cost of living crisis. Octopus founding team are from tech rather than energy backgrounds and are determinedly using technology to drive down prices, enable great service and drive towards a renewable future through the smart grid, which is essential to decarbonise affordably. Its bollocks, Greg Jackson, the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, replies, when I ask what he makes of this idea. [4] Greg Jackson is the founder of the company and holds the position of chief executive. [62][63] The Kraken software was also licensed to Australia's Origin Energy as part of their May 2020 agreement. Our last question before ending this interview is around environmentally sustainable businesses and their impact on climate change. Headquartered in London, the company has operations in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. Please talk us through your operating business model, how it generates value and how this gives you a competitive edge in the retail energy market? In 2010, Jackson released another instructional book about his ground fighting style called Jackson's MMA - The Ground Game. Coaches Honored with Jackson/Winkeljohn Dat, How a powerhouse MMA gym rose out of necessity and is helping others, Ranking the 10 Best Camps in MMA Right Now, Rankings Spotlight: MMAs Top 5 Fight Gyms, "War And Peace In Jackson's Gym - SI.com - Magazine", "Fighters Only World Mixed Martial Arts Awards 2010 - 2009 Winners", "Bellator's 'Fight Master' reality series set for summer debut on Spike TV", Jacksons Wink MMA Academy - Official Website, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greg_Jackson_(MMA_trainer)&oldid=1055483227, Sportspeople from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 November 2021, at 03:38. I lived through rip-roaring inflation in the 1980s and double-digit interest rates. You cant just enter this market by shaking your piggy bank. He believes suppliers with more than 10,000 customers should be subject to hedging checks. 8 Dislike Share Save. Rachel also works hand-in-hand with consumer bodies to ensure all customers are well served and benefit from the transition to net zero. Jackson applauds Boris Johnsons aspiration to make the UK the Saudi Arabia of wind, and believes such a project could transform our economy: If we build enough wind generation to meet our winter needs, nine months of the year were going to have unbelievably cheap electricity. Or whether we organise a boycott of you". Jackson, 50, grew up near Middlesbrough. In 2009, Jackson released an instructional book about his fighting style called Jackson's MMA - The Stand Up Game. Refresh [5], In December 2021, Octopus Energy announced a long-term partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, raising US$300m and taking the valuation of Octopus Energy Group to approximately $5bn. About Greg Jackson: Greg is an experienced digital entrepreneur, passionate about making the green energy revolution affordable through technology. 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