Stephen R. Fear

Stephen R. Fear
Stephen Fear Profile.jpg Stephen Fear Profile.jpg Fear in 2014
Born	(1953-08-27) 27 August 1953 Bristol, England
🏳️ Nationality	British
💼 Occupation	Businessman

Stephen Fear (born 27 August 1953) is an English businessman with property and interests in industries including green technology, Internet technology, care homes, hotels and manufacturing.

Fear has been Entrepreneur in Residence and an Ambassador of the British Library, from 2012 - 2016, a position formerly held by the late Dame Anita Roddick, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of West England in July 2013. In October 2014 Fear was made a patron of the charity for the homeless, Emmaus, a role he relinquished on 25 April 2016 due to extensive commitments elsewhere. Fear received a lifetime achievement award presented by The Bristol Post and also was a member of the Bristol Commission on Education and Skills. In November 2016 Stephen became Patron of Lucy Air Ambulance for Children, a registered charity (number 1138457) that is dedicated to delivering air transfers for seriously ill babies and children up to the age of 16 in the UK who require an elective (planned) transfer service.

Early life

Fear was born in Bristol and brought up on a Council Estate in a suburb. He was the youngest of four children, having three older half-sisters. He attended Henbury School in Bristol for the first six weeks of his education; however, his formal education only lasted for a total of approximately three years including attending school in Malmesbury for about a year from age twelve. Fear is essentially self-educated through his lifelong love of reading which is one of the reasons he supports the British Library and the general retention and expansion of libraries throughout both the UK and the developing world. Fear is passionate about an intercontinental library system being created throughout Africa where access to books is currently limited.

Fear started in business at the age of 15, having left school, by creating a company called Easy Clean, which specialised in commercial oven cleaning.

Showing very early entrepreneurial skills, Fear bought a cleaning formula from an American company advertising in the Exchange & Mart, originally intended for domestic use and adapted the product himself in a lock-up garage and later selling commercial cleaning services to large bakeries.

His first major business deal was achieved over the phone using the now famous Red Telephone Box on the Council Estate in Bristol where he was brought up. leading to the nickname - "The Phonebox Millionaire ™".

Fear later sold this business for £100,000 and invested the money in property, which was to be the start of his property empire.

Later with business partner Arne Naess, (the late Norwegian shipping magnet and mountaineer, famous for having led the first Norwegian expedition to Mount Everest in 1985 with British mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington CBE), Fear invested in many businesses in the UK and America; however, the bulk of his career has been spent in the property and corporate sectors focusing on property investment and development as well as company takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, resulting in a multifaceted business empire under the umbrella Fear Group, which he runs with son and business partner Leon Fear.

Capel-le-Ferne

After listening to Margaret Thatcher's interview on ITN News when she insisted that the tunnel would be built, Fear woke up the following morning at 4 am and drove to Kent where he set up an office in The Great Danes Hotel and proceeded to try to buy land and property.

Fear bought a caravan park set on 18 acres (7 ha) before adding another 10 acres (4 ha) one year later. He placed advertisements in the Liverpool, Dublin, and other newspapers where there was high unemployment, offering both accommodation and help with finding work on the project.

Together with Arne Naess then husband to Diana Ross, Fear created the first major workers' accommodation for the new Channel Tunnel Project in Capel-le-Ferne, Kent at a time of high unemployment, which housed three hundred unemployed men and their families on a site previously used as a Spitfire airbase during World War II. The airbase had become a caravan park and Fear helped the unemployed find work on the project. Fear and Naess set up and ran an employment help centre on site and assisted men, from the United Kingdom, who had been unemployed for more than three years, in finding work on the building of the new tunnel.

In the media

Fear has been featured by the media of the United Kingdom, including the Financial Times, Sunday Times, The Independent and The Guardian commenting on a range of business, social and political issues. Fear has been profiled in a number of publications including The Daily Express, Bristol Post and Balance magazine, the official in-house magazine for the British Bankers Association. He is also a recognised author and regular contributor to a number of media outlets including Business Matters, The Huffington Post, Is4Profit and London Loves Business. In late 2013, Fear was asked to write a biweekly column for Barclays Bank aimed at helping entrepreneurs, with a particular focus on small and medium size enterprises.

In June 2013, Fear was asked to be a judge at the London Loves Excellence Awards with Tim Campbell, Karren Brady, Charlie Mullins and chief executive of International Airlines Group, Willie Walsh. Following this event, Fear was also asked to be a judge at the London Loves Talent Awards in April 2014 where he helped pick out and celebrate companies for whose talent, skills, leadership and workforce development are demonstrated at the heart of their business.

In addition to a quarterly book review series, Fear launched an online blog titled "Fear on Food." Written by Stephen and Leon Fear, the blog provides advice and tips for international business lunches including advice tailored for the business traveler such as mobile phone signal strength, WIFI usage and the ability to charge portable devices.

In 2017, Fear starred in a feature interview on the television series, 'In Conversation With' on the Manchester United TV channel, MUTV, where he was interviewed by John Gubba about his life story and love of the British football club. In the interview, Fear talks about his admiration for the legendary footballer George Best as well as Denis Law CBE, Sir Bobby Charlton and Eric Cantona together with some of the emerging crop of Manchester United players including Marcus Rashford. Fear also talked about the Munich air disaster and its impact on the club.

Other celebrities and well known people who starred in the series included former Dragon's Den star and businessman Theo Paphitis, BBC DJ 'Whispering' Bob Harris, Sir Bryn Terfel and Britain's first female Bishop, Libby Lane.

The British Library

Fear was an Ambassador and the official Entrepreneur in Residence at The Business & Intellectual Property Centre at The British Library from 2012 to 2016, promoting both the BIPC & The British Library where possible, also regularly contributing to panel debates, Q&A sessions and seminars hosted by the Library. In early 2013, Fear announced his quarterly video book review series. Primarily filmed at the British Library, the series sees Fear select a number of business publications on a particular theme. In February 2013, Fear filmed his first episode, relating to Internet and Marketing, at the British Library. A few months later, he recorded the second episode of the series on International Trade. In September 2016 the review series relocated to the prestigious Arnolfini -Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol on the harbour side and the inaugural event which featured China was in association with The University of The West of England. The review series takes on a new audience from October 2016 - "Talking Business with Stephen Fear" and will include lively panel debates and audience participation. Fear also writes for the Innovation and Enterprise Blog. Following a lunch with the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh during the Diamond Jubilee, Fear personally invited Prince Phillip to visit the British Library’s Business and IP Centre where Fear, with other British Library Ambassadors, hosted a private tour on 13 November 2013.

Public Speaking

Fear is often asked to speak at a number of corporate events, exhibitions and dinners and in the past has given talks at the British Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum. In November 2012, Fear spoke at the inaugural talk for Heropreneurs in central London with General Sir David Richards, then head of the British Armed Forces. In 2013, Fear took part in a panel debate as part of Prime’s Enterprise for Over 50s with Esther Rantzen. On 16 October 2013, Fear spoke at Cardiff University as part of its Innovation Network.

On 23 October 2013 Fear was asked to be a judge for the Growing Business Awards where he was sat with Liberal Democrat Politician, Chief Security to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP and Lord Bilimoria. Sponsored by the Confederation of British Industry and Lloyds Bank, the ceremony was hosted by Real Business Magazine at the Marriott Grosvenor in Grosvenor Square, London. Fear was asked to present the award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year alongside former BBC Chief Political Correspondent and Strictly Come Dancing star, John Sergeant.

Fear spoke in Exeter on 12 December 2013 to business leaders at a briefing by Devon County Council, hosted by Ashfords, about a new resource within Exeter's Central Library that would give businesses access to high quality business and intellectual property information.

On 29 May 2014, Fear, co-hosted a two-hour workshop at the Hay Festival. Aimed at young entrepreneurs, the workshop focused on how to start a business and maintain momentum after launch.

Fear coined the phrase "Covenant of Place" in May 2014 whilst talking to British Investors - a term used to describe a cities performance in the investment market, and how a city is scored by its appeal to investors.

On 8 September 2014 Fear's four-part radio series, "Dr Fear's Business Remedies." aired on Ujima Radio 98FM Bristol. The hour long business show aims to inspire entrepreneurs from all backgrounds and age groups to succeed in business and has a panel of guests that question Fear. Fear now writes a monthly business column for the Bristol Post Newspaper.

In November 2014, Fear gave a seminar at Olympia London as part of the 32nd Business StartUp Show, which covered topics including "how to keep your overheads low" and "Growing your Business".

In December 2014 Fear gave a keynote speech in association with South West Housing Initiative Ltd. (SWHI) at the meeting of its All Party Parliamentary Group at the House of Commons.

Fear delivered a keynote speech during the Real Business Value Creation Conference in July 2015, alongside other inspirational speakers including Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE and Jenny Tooth OBE.

In July 2015 Fear addressed an audience of over 450 employees of the Curo Group, a Housing association with over 13000 properties spread across Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Bristol.

In November 2016, Fear judged the Amazon Business Awards 2016 Growing hosted by comedian Rob Beckett in association with Real Business and presented the award for Rural Business of the Year.

Personal life and Achievements

In July 2013, Fear receievd an honorary doctorate from the University of the West of England.

In the Summer of 2013, Fear joined Bristol Mayor, George Ferguson CBE, PPRIBA, RWA to become part of his Education and Skills Commission whose goal is to improve the lives of Bristol's young people. Fear accepted the position given his own childhood and lack of initial formal education. During a ceremony on 25 June (2014) held at The Passenger Shed, Bristol, Fear was presented with a lifetime achievement prize at the Bristol Business Awards.

External links

• Fear Group
• British Library Ambassador Profile
• Public Speaking Experience

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