Jonathan Faiman

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Jonathan Faiman
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Born1969 (age 54–55)
NationalityBritish
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
OccupationBusinessman
OrganizationToday Development Partners
TitleFounder

Jonathan Faiman (born 1969)[1] is the founder of Today Development Partners, also known as TDP and T0DAY, an online grocery business that was established in 2018.[2]

Faiman was one of the three founders of online grocery and technology business Ocado in 2000, but he left the business in 2008, before the company floated on the London Stock Exchange. Faiman sold most of his shares in Ocado in 2010 at 118p per share, close to the company's lowest valuation.[3] If owned in May 2020, the shares would have been worth over £500 million.[4]

In 2019 it was reported that Faiman was being sued by Ocado. Ocado alleges that Faiman colluded with Jon Hilary, then a senior Ocado employee, to steal confidential information in order to launch a rival business, T0DAY.[5] The litigation is ongoing and is being heard before the High Court in London.

Career

Faiman worked at Goldman Sachs as a bond trader[6] before becoming one of the three founders of Ocado in 2000.[7] The other founders are Jason Gissing and Tim Steiner. Faiman left Ocado in 2008, prior to the company's public listing. He stepped down from the board in 2010. Today, Ocado is a FTSE 100 online grocery and technology company with a market capitalisation of nearly £15 billion.

Having left Ocado, Faiman started a wheat farming business in Ukraine.[8] After this, in 2015, Faiman moved to run Neos Geosolutions, a company that aimed to collect and analyse geological data to find new oil and gas reserves onshore.[9] Despite being backed by Bill Gates, Goldman Sachs and Kleimer Perkins, the business failed in 2018 and was being sued by investors until Faiman settled the case out of court.[10]

In 2018, Faiman founded T0DAY, an e-retail technology platform for the grocery sector. In May 2019, it was reported that Waitrose had selected TDP as its online retail partner[11] after Ocado terminated their 20-year relationship in February 2019 in favour of a partnership with Marks and Spencer. This business and Faiman are currently being sued by Ocado for intellectual property theft.

Litigation

In June 2019, Ocado obtained an order from the High Court for searches to be carried out the offices of T0DAY and the residences of Faiman and Jon Hilary (then a senior Ocado employee), concerned they had stolen confidential information from Ocado.[12] The searches found hundreds of confidential Ocado documents including contracts, pitch documents and blueprints for an automated warehouse.[13] At the time of the search, Raymond McKeeve, a partner at American law firm Jones Day and lawyer for Faiman, is reported to have contacted the company's IT technician and instructed him to “burn” messages on a private communications platform.[14] The messages were irretrievably destroyed and Ocado is accusing McKeeve of Contempt of Court, saying that these messages could have provided evidence in the litigation.[15] McKeeve is no longer a partner at Jones Day.[16]

Faiman and Hillary have admitted to working together and using information about Ocado's business to pitch T0DAY’s services to Marks & Spencer while Hillary was still working at Ocado.[17] It is reported that they used pseudonyms and communicated with each other on unregistered mobile phones. M&S instead agreed to form a joint venture with Ocado.[18]

This is now the subject of proceedings before the High Court in London. Faiman denies the charges.[19]

The case has attracted substantial media coverage. Lord Rose, the chairman of Ocado, said the company would go to “any lengths” to protect itself from theft.[20] In Ocado's full year results statement for 2019, it says that Ocado "will vigorously protect its intellectual property and challenge any individual or organisation that uses unlawfully obtained information, either directly or indirectly."[21] By February 2020, Ocado had spent £1.3 million on legal fees relating to this dispute.[22]

In the media

References

  1. ↑ "Jonathan FAIMAN - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  2. ↑ "Home". t0day.com. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  3. ↑ Goldfingle2011-08-18T10:18:00+01:00, Gemma. "Ocado co-founder cuts stake in grocer". Retail Week. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  4. ↑ "OCADO share price (OCDO) - London Stock Exchange". www.londonstockexchange.com. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
  5. ↑ Onita, Laura (2019-09-20). "Ocado sues co-founder Jonathan Faiman". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
  6. ↑ Butler, Sarah (2019-05-16). "Waitrose eyes rapid expansion of online grocery business". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  7. ↑ "Who we are". Ocado Group. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  8. ↑ Shah, Oliver (26 May 2019). "Ocado founder Jonathan Faiman accused of delivering a betrayal". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-02-09.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ↑ "Jonathan Faiman, Neos — from groceries to oil | Financial Times". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2020-02-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ↑ "Ocado rival faced claims of fraud as energy firm failed". Evening Standard. 2019-05-23. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  11. ↑ "UK's Waitrose plans 1 bln stg online grocery business". Reuters. 2019-05-16. Retrieved 2020-05-14.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ↑ Editor, Ashley Armstrong, Retail. "Ocado rival's lawyer 'gave order to burn secret data'". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-02-14. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ↑ Onita, Laura (2019-09-20). "Ocado sues co-founder Jonathan Faiman". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  14. ↑ Editor, Ashley Armstrong, Retail. "Ocado rival's lawyer 'gave order to burn secret data'". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-06-03. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ↑ Ellen, Milligan (18 December 2019). "Ocado Falling-Out Prompts Court Battle Over Destroyed Messages". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2020-06-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ↑ Barr, Luke (2020-01-02). "Jones Day partner leaves firm amid Ocado controversy". The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  17. ↑ "Ocado Suit Against Co-Founder Over Rival Biz Goes Forward - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  18. ↑ Eley, Jonathan (23 September 2019). "Ocado co-founder rejects 'ludicrous' espionage claim". Financial Times.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ↑ Ralph, Alex. "Ocado split gets messier as Waitrose dumps Jonathan Faiman's TDP". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  20. ↑ Finance, City & (2019-09-23). "Ocado chairman rails against co-founder's 'corporate theft'". This is Money. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  21. ↑ "Ocado Full Year Results 2019" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ↑ Nott2020-02-11T12:04:00, George. "Ocado results reveal legal fees of £1.3m and M&S range growth plans". The Grocer. Retrieved 2020-02-14.

External links

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