Paul Jessup (artist)

Paul Jessup
Born (1968-03-17) 17 March 1968
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England
Organization The Great British Teddy Bear Company
Spouse(s) Lisa Maxwell
Children Beau Jessup

Paul Jessup (born 17 March 1968) is a British artist, philanthropist, and founder of The Great British Teddy Bear Company which features teddy bears based on Sherlock Holmes, Florence Nightingale, Robin Hood, and others.[1][2]

Career

Jessup attended Camberwell School of Art and The Royal College of Art before founding the Stone Jessup Design Consultancy in Covent Garden. He secured packaging design contracts with Royal Doulton, Wedgewood, and Enesco. He sold Stone Jessup in 2001 and decided to create a new British brand, The Great British Teddy Bear and founded the same in October 2005. In 2007, The Metropolitan Police asked him to design the first Official Metropolitan Police Teddy Bear, Bobby Bear, in support of the charity Care of Police Survivors. Bobby Bear was launched at Hamleys London by the cast of ITV Police show The Bill and British Actor Shane Richie.[3][4][5]

China

In September 2015, Jessup secured a contract with the Chinese Government worth £20m to build a 1,000-acre Great British Teddy Bear tourism town.[6]

In November 2015, he signed a licensing contract with a Chinese state-owned food and beverage company worth £40m to open over 100 Great British Teddy Bear themed Cafes across 12 cities in China.[7]

In 2017, he secured representation with China's brand licensing agency Li & Fung, who also represent Hello Kitty and Dreamworks.

Controversy

In February 2018 Paul Jessup was banned as a director for 12 years for falsely claiming back VAT on his wedding reception and work on his home.[8] He also provided HMRC with eight false invoices in support of the VAT reclaims which showed materially different details to the originals and suggested that the invoices were for legitimate company expenditure.

Philanthropic Bears

In 2009 Great British Traffic Bobby's was carried by all response vehicles in Lincolnshire, Bedfordshire, and Nottinghamshire. Traffic Bobby is given to child passengers in the rear of vehicles involved in accidents to distract them while the emergency services attend to the injured passengers.

In 2010, Jessuo developed a philanthropic initiative for the International Nurses Foundation utilizing The Florence Nightingale Bear to raise funds and awareness for The Girl Child Education Fund, a nursing initiative, supporting the primary and secondary schooling of the orphaned daughters of nurses in developing countries. Florence Nightingale Teddy bears would be purchased by nurses to give to their children, and £4 from the sale of each bear would be donated by The Great British Teddy Bear Company to educate female orphans of nurses in third world countries.[9][10]

In 2011 he was invited by the Royal Air Force to design the Official Bomber Command Teddy Bear to raise funds for the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park.[11] He created a partnership with the Poppy Factory[12] employing wounded ex-servicemen to dress each bear.

Inspired by war veteran Owen Scott Paul designed a Veteran Teddy Bear which was featured on the front cover of Teddy Bear and Friends[13] and appeared with Owen Scott on ITV's programme This Morning .[14]

Personal Life

Paul was married with Lisa Maxwell in 2014. He proposed to her long-term partner Lisa Maxwell, with whom he has been in a relationship since 1997. They have one daughter who was born in October 1999, called Beau.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "The Great British Teddy Bear Company to open over 100 cafes across China". ToyNews.
  2. ↑ "China gets British teddy theme park". BBC News. 18 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "Bobby Bear Helps Child Victims of Crime | UK Police News – Police Oracle". Policeoracle.com.
  4. ↑ "'This memorial is about honouring those brave men who didn't come back'". Times Series.
  5. ↑ "Bobby Bear Launched at Hamleys". Soapboards.co.uk.
  6. ↑ Best, Jessica (18 September 2015). "Teddy bear town is sure to be a big surprise for visitors to China". mirror.
  7. ↑ "The Great British Teddy Bear Company to open over 100 cafes across China". ToyNews.
  8. ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/director-banned-for-reclaiming-tax-on-costs-for-own-wedding-reception
  9. ↑ "The Florence Nightingale Teddy Bear - fnif.org". fnif.org. 18 January 2018.
  10. ↑ "Finnish nurse-entrepreneur receives ICN/FNIF achievement award". International Nursing Review. 17 August 2011. pp. 282–285. doi:10.1111/j.1466-7657.2011.00936_3.x.
  11. ↑ "'This memorial is about honouring those brave men who didn't come back'". Times Series.
  12. ↑ "Great British Teddy Bear Company | Army Bears | London Bears | British Teddies | GBTC". www.luxurybears.co.uk.
  13. ↑ "Great British Teddy Bear Company". teddybearandfriends.com.
  14. ↑ "War hero Owen Scott". ITV (TV network).
  15. ↑ Davies, Alex (20 September 2018). "Who is Lisa Maxwell's husband? Inside Celeb Masterchef star's family life". OK! Magazine.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.